High blood pressure!

[Declaration Day]

Over the last few weeks I have noticed redness in my face that isn't normal.  I work outside, but I use sunblock and usually any redness I get from sun exposure goes away within an hour of being indoors. However, this redness increases after I come home and take a shower, and my face feels warm for a couple of hours.

So this evening I had my blood pressure checked at my gym and it is indeed too high. ( inactivity isn't the problem.  I have a physical job and I'm a weight lifter).

This is my wake-up call to change my diet.  I eat junk food, canned food, drink too much pop, etc.

My question is, those of you who have been in this predicament, what foods, supplements, etc did / do you use to bring your blood pressure down?  And how long should it take for me to see results?

[wmenorr67]

Did you have your BP checked just after working out?  If so you will have elevated pressure.  You need to take your BP at the sametime over the course of several days to see if there are any problems.  Plus if you think you have a problem go see a Dr.

[Declaration Day]

No it was before working out.

[Leatherneck]

Second WM's advice. See a doc. High BP is nothing to self-diagnose. If you're healthy and strong, it's probably minor. But there are lots of complex factors involved. Diet, genetics, cholesterol, stress, etc. Do the right thing please.

TC

[Declaration Day]

Stress is a big factor right now.  I am going through a divorce, and things are bad enough that I don't want to be at home right now.  

I'll go see a doctor soon, I promise.

I want to get started right away with a healthier diet nonetheless.  I've eaten crap all my life and this is a wake-up call.

[grampster]

"However, this redness increases after I come home and take a shower, and my face feels warm for a couple of hours."

Hmmmm.  Did you notice a certain lol cat looking at you from the ceiling fixture above you in the shower?

[BlueStarLizzard]

my dad had to combine prescriptions with becomeing a vegetarian for a year to get his under control.

[Balog]

Healthier diet is a good thing, high BP or no.

Stress is a killer, myself I'd bet on that being a big part of it.

[Ron]

Is cardio a part of your work out regimen? Get a mountain bike, best thing I ever did for my health, I used to hate cardio.

Do you eat a lot of red meat? I'm down to once or twice a week, moderation in red meats help.

How heavily do you drink? Boozing a lot is bad for your blood pressure as well as other areas of your life. Moderation once again is the key, unless you have addiction issues of course, then abstinence is the best course of action.

You don't smoke do you?

I'm a Christian, I believe and trust in Christ. When I'm not living consistent with what I know and believe is right I experience stress.

Self examination and knowing yourself, what you believe, your ethics, is crucial. That way you can identify when you aren't living up to the standards you believe you should be, causing yourself undue stress.

My Grandfather died after his third heart attack, before he reached seventy. My father struggles with high blood pressure problems and is on serious meds. Still drinks and smokes.

At 45 my blood pressure is consistently 120/80 or better every time I go to the doc.  

[Declaration Day]

Is cardio a part of your work out regimen? Get a mountain bike, best thing I ever did for my health, I used to hate cardio.

Do you eat a lot of red meat? I'm down to once or twice a week, moderation in red meats help.

How heavily do you drink? Boozing a lot is bad for your blood pressure as well as other areas of your life. Moderation once again is the key, unless you have addiction issues of course, then abstinence is the best course of action.

You don't smoke do you?

I'm a Christian, I believe and trust in Christ. When I'm not living consistent with what I know and believe is right I experience stress.

Self examination and knowing yourself, what you believe, your ethics, is crucial. That way you can identify when you aren't living up to the standards you believe you should be, causing yourself undue stress.

My Grandfather died after his third heart attack, before he reached seventy. My father struggles with high blood pressure problems and is on serious meds. Still drinks and smokes.

At 45 my blood pressure is consistently 120/80 or better every time I go to the doc.  

I do eat a lot of red meat.  Sometimes a nice steak, but often in the form of greasy, fast-food burgers.

I'm normally not a heavy drinker but I admit I have been doing so more lately, due to the ongoing divorce. 

I am not, nor have I ever been, a smoker.
 

[grampster]

One aspirin a day is a good regime to follow.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

substitute exercise for the booze and a divorce can be a real butt whuppin stress wise   richard pryor described it well
"women break up they cry get together with their mom sisters and g/f's call you everything but a man and move on with their life.  a man goes shhheeeet  thats just #$#$^y i can get that anytime excuse me while i step out in front of this bus"

[vaskidmark]

Aspirin is good if you have a hiastory of clotting, or if your cardiac arteries are less than optimally open and in danger of becoming clotted.  Otherwise, it's better to check with a doc before jumping on that bandwagon.

Elevated BP once in a while is not High Blood Pressure.  Get your BP checked at regular intervals to establish a baseline.  Ditto for after work, after working out, maybe even during cardio exertion.  Those things you strap on your chest are not worth the cost/effort.  The machines at drug stores are iffy at best, but can alert you to an extraordinarily high reading.  Your local fire dept. may offer free drop-in BP screenings - check with them.

Reducing both NaCl and K will help you bring down your BP - but be careful to not go too low.  If you start getting woozy, feel faint, drop flat on your face you might have gone too low.  Be aware that you need to stay hydrated, and that when you cut down/out on salty stuff you may find your output increasing so you will need to increase ypur input to compensate.  Other than the time involved it won't hurt you.

As you decrease fatty foods you might want to check your fat-soluable vitamin levels - you can either start to excrete stored stuff and up your levels or start to drop below optimum - aint the body's chemistry fun?

If you truely have HBP you may be started on a diuretic.  If so, all I can say to you is "Happy days!"  Find your rhythm before you go off for any extended period of time.  Ask me how I know.  Nah!  Just search here for "lasix" instead.

stay safe.

skidmark

[sanglant]

drink a bunch of water. yeah it sounds silly, but it works. cut back on the salt, doesn't work for everyone but try it. might want to take a look here. were you using an electric BP monitor? if so does it have a indicator for irregular heart rate? if your heart rate is off kelter it will make you feel like crap. and a cheap BP monitor will be all over the place. not to scare you, but if any of these sound to familiar get to a doctor. i drop a beat every once in a while, scares the crap out of nurses. had to go to omron to find a bp monitor that would work. and as VAS said, don't worry about it just because it's high every once in a while, that's normal. a monitor that keeps a record of the last 20+ or so times is handy. and the wrist ones are more trouble then there worth unless you just don't have room for an arm model. oh and there are some herbs you might want to try before drugs.(well they are drugs but with less side effects) here's a list but think(prey) about it hard before trying any, the fish oil just about killed me.

[Declaration Day]

It was an electric monitor, no irregular heart rate indicator.

I will schedule a doctor's appt and check my BP regularly from now on.

In the mean time, I went up to the grocery store and bought some fish for dinner, and Mrs. Dash for seasoning (tasted like nothing to me, because I usually dump salt on everything I eat).

Then I pan-fried some chicken tenderloins to take to work tomorrow for lunch, also seasoned with the tasteless Mrs. Dash.  Normally Thursday is Triple heart-attack with extra grease Wendy's burger day.

The most interesting thing though, and yes i will check with the doc before doing this regularly, is that I took an aspirin shortly after grampster posted the suggestion, and the redness subsided about 75% a half hour later.

[sanglant]

watch the cutting salt completely. it makes your food taste like cardboard and can make you sicker than the high BP. if you can pick up some grey salt locally it is a good salt for using less. is nice and big grains so it takes up a lot of room. if you like it it's a lot cheaper to order. otherwise consider digging out the koshering salt.

[Brad Johnson]

If you are active, in reasonably good physical condition, and have at least a marginally healthy dietary regimen, there's no realy food issues that will cause or prevent high blood pressure.  The only caveat is if you are sodium sensitive (roughly 3% of the population).

Stress is bad, and will definitely aggravate a BP problem that's already present.

- HOWEVER -

Some people just have a touch of high blood pressure.  It happens.  We have a 20 year old kid in our office that eats like a dietary textbook and runs marathons for crying out loud.  Found out about six months ago (same symptoms you're describing - facial redness, minor nagging headache, etc).  I have members of my family in the same boat... healthy, active lifestyles but still have a touch of high blood pressure.

As has been recommended, see your doc.  Slightly elevated BP is easily controlled with meds and may well go away after you get away from the stress.

Brad

[Grandpa Shooter]

Chronic or persistent HBP is one thing.  Situational elevated BP is quite a different deal.  For instance, I drink a lot of coffee (6 or more large mugs a day).  I took my BP one time after having a couple of cups of coffee with my favorite breakfast, a super gooey pastry, and YUP my BP was elevated.

My other situational stress is going to or having anything to do with the VA. They tried convincing me that I had chronic or persistent high BP and I denied it.  When they asked for an explanation I told them it was them.  I had kept a daily log of BP and guess what, my BP was high the morning I went to the VA, and while I was there, but normal the rest of the time.

Divorce can be a killer.  Mine caused so much stress and aggravation I thought I was going to die.  I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of collecting my benefits so I always made it through.  Don't start blaming yourself, or let her blame you (unless of course you deserve it).  Don't get mad, or try to get even.  Just get it over with and get on with your life.  It takes awhile to establish any normalcy or routine, but doing so will help greatly in getting the BP down.

[230RN]

Stress is a big factor right now.  I am going through a divorce, and things are bad enough that I don't want to be at home right now.

Bingo. (And the moving-out part, if any, is another big stress item.)

...and Mrs. Dash for seasoning (tasted like nothing to me, because I usually dump salt on everything I eat).

Bingo bingo

Useta be for me, food was just an excuse to eat lots of salt.

I've got a question for wmenorr67, though:

Did you have your BP checked just after working out?  If so you will have elevated pressure.  You need to take your BP at the sametime over the course of several days to see if there are any problems.

That's what I'd expect.  Yet this chart seems to indicate low blood pressure after excercise (see legend near dotted line at 110 / 70):



What gives?

Terry, 230RN

(PS. two gold stars for the comment about women seeking mutual support and advice, whereas men just try to tough it out.)

(Pic credit in properties)

[Brad Johnson]

What gives?

Terry, 230RN

Read the bottom line on the chart, the red one.  That's 'splains a lot.

Brad

[grislyatoms]

Alcohol has a profound effect on BP. Just saying.

I'm usually pretty low, 116/60.

If I drink just a couple pints of beer, I'll hit 180/100 in no time at all. Again, just putting it out there.

[Waitone]

Take you blood pressure in the morning after you've awakened but before getting out of bed.  Then record it. 

[KD5NRH]

I just stay careless.  Hard to maintain high pressure in a leaky vessel.   

[coppertales]

My BP is usually 10-15 points lower right after working out.  I am a powerlifter so I do the heavy stuff in cycles.  I am an old fart too, 66.  My BP is usually about 5-10 points lower after a couple martinis too.

What kind of supliments are you taking?  I was taking one called Zip Fiz and it sent my pulse rate all over the place.  It returned to normal after a week of not taking it.  Too bad, I liked the taste and it gave me energy for my workouts.....chris3

[Brad Johnson]

Good point, Chris.  People don't realize how hard energy drinks impact your system.

Brad