Talk to me about high blood pressure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BUy your own blood pressure cuff and keep track. My doc likes it when I bring in my records.

Pay attention to the sodium content of everything you buy.

Before going on real medication you can also go on a diuretic and see if that helps. That's what I'm on.

Pay attention to how much caffeine you ingest. Caffeine raises blood pressure. Except for am coffee everything else is caffeine free.

Are you taking an over the counter diuretic, or prescribed by your doctor? My BP has been borderline high for a year or two and I think it's now creeping into the officially high range. I am healthy and in my late 30's with a strong family history of hypertension so it was pretty much a matter of time. I would be open to trying the diuretic first.

Prescribed by my internist.

[Anonymous]

Stop eating meat, dairy and gluten and stop drinking for 30 days and see what the readings are. Would that be workable?

[Anonymous]

A friend who is a cardiologist says he'd put lisinopril and atorvastatin into water coolers if he was in charge.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you for the replies. I feel so much better just reading the comments from others who’ve gone through this and are doing fine long term - with or without meds. For some reason, I feel ashamed that something might be “wrong” with me. I know that even if I lose the 10 pounds and get to my ideal weight, I could still have high BP and it might be out of my control.

I did get a home monitor and have taken my BP twice at home today, and both times it was around 120/80. So I guess I’ll continue to monitor at home and also do the 24 hour blood pressure monitor to see what those results are.

As much as I would ideally like to avoid going on meds, I find the whole process of going through the diagnosis so stressful - like I’m being evaluated and tested and might fail! Part of me would rather just go on meds without additional testing, but then when I see the BP readings like I got today at home, I worry about going on meds unnecessarily.

Is it possible to have white coat syndrome to the point that it would pump my readings up to 150/100 at the doctors office? That seems extreme. I also wonder if my readings get that high at the doctor, is my BP fling up like that at other stressful points in the day. It’s so hard to know.

Thanks for listening!

[Anonymous]

All of you doing readings at home, when do you measure now when you are "not stressed" with two jobs and kids and DL, every waking hour there is crud to take care of and I wake up to a feeling of dread about the day. There is no "relaxed" time except when I pass out doing chores...

[Anonymous]

Went on very low carb diet,
lost 30lb blood pressure and blood sugar became normal.
I hate medication.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really understand the fear of medication.

I have high blood pressure. Diet has some effect, but 200/140 isn't going to be fixed by diet and weight loss. 30mg of Linisopril has me at the high end of normal. Yes, I am 15-20 lbs overweight and I exercise regularly. It helps but doesn't make much difference.

Fear of medication is that it comes with side effects. I think people should always try lifestyle changes first before popping pills. That said, if medication is NEEDED to manage the condition then of course one should take it. It's good to be well educated on the meds and monitoring.

Fear of high blood pressure is more sensible. High blood pressure, whatever the cause, damages all organs. It's dangerous.

Don't be obtuse. The comment being replied to poses "I don't really understand the fear of medication". My reply answers why there might be a fear of medication. It does not say that there should be no fear of high blood pressure. It does not say that fear of medication is more justified than the fear of a condition. It does not say that fear of medication is more or less sensible than other fears. It simply hopes to enlighten PP lack of understanding as to why someone may have fear of medication.

[Anonymous]

I just got put on Norvasc last week. Its funny, I went in the week before to get blood drawn. They ended up taking my BP after they took some blood. The tech noted that my BP was good. The next week they took the BP first, and I was definitely apprehensive about the annual physical and my BP reading was elevated. I thought about pushing back on going on meds, but in general I've been seeing my readings go up over the past year or two. I think I'm accurately in the "elevated" or stage 1 range for hypertension. I'll monitor at home now regularly.

It does seem to make sense that if you BP is peaking out of a healthy range at the dr., then it may also be peaking at other times. So, "white coat syndrome" may not be good excuse for refusing medication or treatment.

[Anonymous]

I started BP medication, the lowest dose of telmisartin, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, about 5 months ago.

I'm 57. My blood pressure had been fine my whole life until I started to get high readings when I'd go the doctor's office about a year ago. Every single doctor chalked it up to white coat hypertension. But I started to get worried because of my age, my weight (about 20 pounds too much), and that my dad took BP meds despite being normal weight.

I borrowed my sister's BP monitor (she does have high BP) and saw that I was consistently 145-150/90. After starting the medication, my BP is now around 115/70. I know I need to lose the weight, but I'm super stressed with dealing the pandemic (including a friend who died of COVID in September) so I'm just trying to be as nice to myself (I bought a pack of Twizzlers yesterday) as I can right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: As much as I would ideally like to avoid going on meds, I find the whole process of going through the diagnosis so stressful - like I’m being evaluated and tested and might fail! Part of me would rather just go on meds without additional testing, but then when I see the BP readings like I got today at home, I worry about going on meds unnecessarily.

I hear you! This was me. It's actually a big load off my mind to just to take the pills and have it under control without guilt. But it does sound like it's worth home monitoring and just keeping an eye on things over time.

Anonymous wrote: Is it possible to have white coat syndrome to the point that it would pump my readings up to 150/100 at the doctors office?

Yes, absolutely! Mine regularly went up to scare-the-nurse/she's-having-a-stroke levels. Like 180 for the top number. A reading taken after I'd been in the office for a while and settled down dropped 30 pts, and my at-home numbers were 10-15 pts lower than that, before meds. Now with the meds as well as having good numbers at home, I don't have those dramatic spikes in the office, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always had extreme "white coat hypertension," connected to extreme anxiety about doctors, so I'd always talked doctors out of taking my in-office readings too seriously. In my early 50s, I started with a new GP who a) didn't scare me as much and b) suggested home monitoring, not a wearable 24/7 monitor, but my own cuff to do regular checks. I brought it in and calibrated it against the one in her office before starting and it was close enough. (This one: amazon.com/gp/product/B07BWPG3YM/ ) I found I was consistently in the 130s over 80s, so prehypertensive, but that did not go down after I lost 15 lbs and kept it off.

I started lisinopril 10mg once a day two years ago and have had no side effects. My BP came down to the 115-120 over 70s range and has stayed that way.

It was a weight off my mind finally to realize that my BP was not a matter of insufficient virtue or effort and I should just take the meds.

Who is your doctor? I'm extremely anxious about doctors, too, and I'd love to find one who doesn't scare me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Who is your doctor? I'm extremely anxious about doctors, too, and I'd love to find one who doesn't scare me.

I'm the anxious PP. I go to https://www.myhealthysteps.net/, in Silver Spring across from the Colesville Road Trader Joe's. The MD is Husna Baksh, and I usually see Carolina Johnson (CJ), the PA who made me not afraid to go in. Dr. Baksh is also great/non-scary, but CJ is particularly encouraging. It's an LGBTQ-friendly practice, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really understand the fear of medication.

I have high blood pressure. Diet has some effect, but 200/140 isn't going to be fixed by diet and weight loss. 30mg of Linisopril has me at the high end of normal. Yes, I am 15-20 lbs overweight and I exercise regularly. It helps but doesn't make much difference.

Fear of medication is that it comes with side effects. I think people should always try lifestyle changes first before popping pills. That said, if medication is NEEDED to manage the condition then of course one should take it. It's good to be well educated on the meds and monitoring.

Fear of high blood pressure is more sensible. High blood pressure, whatever the cause, damages all organs. It's dangerous.

Don't be obtuse. The comment being replied to poses "I don't really understand the fear of medication". My reply answers why there might be a fear of medication. It does not say that there should be no fear of high blood pressure. It does not say that fear of medication is more justified than the fear of a condition. It does not say that fear of medication is more or less sensible than other fears. It simply hopes to enlighten PP lack of understanding as to why someone may have fear of medication.

One of the major side effects of high blood pressure is death. Yes, really. If you are worried about minor side effects from medication, your priorities are confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop eating meat, dairy and gluten and stop drinking for 30 days and see what the readings are. Would that be workable?

DP with high blood pressure. I would need to start drinking, eating meat, and dairy in order to stop. Sometimes it just is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you for the replies. I feel so much better just reading the comments from others who’ve gone through this and are doing fine long term - with or without meds. For some reason, I feel ashamed that something might be “wrong” with me. I know that even if I lose the 10 pounds and get to my ideal weight, I could still have high BP and it might be out of my control.

I did get a home monitor and have taken my BP twice at home today, and both times it was around 120/80. So I guess I’ll continue to monitor at home and also do the 24 hour blood pressure monitor to see what those results are.

As much as I would ideally like to avoid going on meds, I find the whole process of going through the diagnosis so stressful - like I’m being evaluated and tested and might fail! Part of me would rather just go on meds without additional testing, but then when I see the BP readings like I got today at home, I worry about going on meds unnecessarily.

Is it possible to have white coat syndrome to the point that it would pump my readings up to 150/100 at the doctors office? That seems extreme. I also wonder if my readings get that high at the doctor, is my BP fling up like that at other stressful points in the day. It’s so hard to know.

Thanks for listening!

I totally get it. I went through the same feelings, before ultimately realizing it was beyond my control. Like another PP said, it was kind of a relief to just start meds. I’m not overweight and I exercise regularly so it wasn’t really anything I could change. As for the white coat hypertension, mine went up so high once that the nurse didn’t tell me because she clearly thought it was a fluke. At the end of the appointment when it has “come down” it was 166/100. Back then it was 125-144/85-90 at home.