High blood pressure

Life Health & Fitness
1

I had my health test yesterday.
I’m 26, pretty fit and can run for miles and miles. I’m as thin as a rake and I’m quite active.

When it came to my blood pressure being checked the reading was 142 over 65.

I was naturally alarmed at this so I checked it again. The next reading was 147 over something.
Having a panic, I asked to be tested again. The pressure this time was 156 over something normal.

When I last had my pressure checked it was 115 over 60. My heart rate was 61 beats per minute.

Is it normal to have such a jump in blood pressure readings? Does it go back down or will it stay within the same range?
Is it indicative of a problem or is it nothing to worry about? Am I being silly?

I have no idea about this so thanks for any replies.

2

DM -
Swings are normal. But keep a very close eye on this.
I “came down” with hi BP about 6 years ago - very high and have been dealing with it since. I just attempted a change in meds and had a terrible time until I returned to my previous regiemen.

Fluid retention is a prime factor in BP. This is why salt can be such a problem, makes your cells act like sponges causing excess hyrdaulic pressure (same thing).

Your #'s are just above the border on good/high and you seem to have a good excercise regimen going. So this may be a spike caused bu other factors.

For now keep it monitored. Sharp headaches in the back of the head are another give-away.

Good luck. If I can offer any more help let me know.
I have opiions on what meds are god, for me at least, and which have caused me & others probs.

3

[quote]I was naturally alarmed at this so I checked it again. The next reading was 147 over something.
Having a panic, I asked to be tested again. The pressure this time was 156 over something normal.[/quote]
I think measuring the blood pressure while being agitated is not good as it will be higher then.

Repeat the test another time/day when you are calm, if possible over a prolonged period of time and record the readings.
AFAIK an upper value of 140 is “elevated” and no reason to be seriously concerned right now, but better check with a doc; if you kept a log it may help the doc in his evaluation.

4

Dangermouse is a very healthy young dude. He went off a cliff on his bike and hardly noticed.

I’ll just about bet they have no idea how to take your blood pressure. Machine or person with sphygmomanometer and stethoscope?

Also, as mentioned the systolic or higher reading is going to be elevated during exercise.

5

be very careful regarding readings on BP here. i was continually told that my BP was high, so the next time i went home, i visited our family doc, and he tested me to find everything normal. he also mentioned that there is a particular arm position that should be used (which is never done here) …

further, you might’ve been under some kinda stress, or similar just before the test. while i’m not saying you should dismiss this, don’t get too concerned either. keep up a good exercise regimen, and eat healthy.

6

Other things that might acutely raise your blood pressure:

smoking
caffeine
Taipei traffic (seriously!)

And that 142 is considerably above what is now considered good. I think the cutoff for prehypertension is now something like 120. As others said, keep an eye on it.

7

I’ve got a BP health issue too. My doctor explained it the following way:

The lower number (diastolic) is the more important indicator for a serious BP problem. The higher number reading (systolic) can be attributed to a number of external factors. Your diastolic number doesn’t lie so if it gets up to 80-90 or more. It’s a big reason to be concerned.

If anyone wants more reading on What is High Blood Pressure, check out the following sites:

  1. Medline Plus search
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute definition
  3. Another one from NHLBI

If you’re concerned, I’d repeat what some others folks mentioned that is to monitor it at different times during the day for a period of 2 weeks.

Don’t forget high BP readings can be caused by stress factors from the job, home, relationships etc as well as genetics (family is predisposed to high BP) and may not have much to do with your diet.

8

Thank you everybody for your replies.

I checked my blood pressure at about 4 pm today and it was 110 over 65, so I think everything is alright for the moment. I can’t understand the peak of 156 though - it must have been stress or something.

Is there an effective way to reduce systollic BP?

Thanks for the links YC and good luck with the continuing battle with your BP, TC. You too, YC.

DM

9

65 diastolic is already about as low as you would want to go.

To clarify. When was the systolic so high. Were you exercising or just finished and was the measurement by reputable people with calibrated instruments.

10

[quote]65 diastolic is already about as low as you would want to go.

To clarify. When was the systolic so high. Were you exercising or just finished and was the measurement by reputable people with calibrated instruments.[/quote]

I hadn’t really done anything that day. The test was for my health check in order to renew my ARC. I did this at Ren Ai hospital which I suppose is pretty reputable. I ambled in and ambled back out again - no running or anything.

They used a great big digital machine which automatically inflated and deflated and then gave you a reading for blood pressure, plus heart rate, which for me this time was 61 per minute.

11

Tested on the same machine? Do you smoke. Nicotine cuts the artery size down. Makes the pipes smaller and harder for the blood to pump through. Worst case leading to amputations. Also, why smokers skin looks bad.

My readings are 120/75 with a resting heart rate of 52. Not bad at all for 47y.o. But, give me enough stress and I can send the top one up to 150 or so

My skin goes blotchy red about the same time. I try to avoid that. X wife, court that sort of thing will do it.

Only other thing is if you go overseas and test lower as one poster mentioned it could also mean that your western diet has suddenly had the salt overdose removed. That could drop the reading.

I have a number of older Chinese friends who have blood pressure problems. They have no interest at all in dropping the salt or changing the heavy animal fat content in their diet or giving up smoking or exercising. I’ve given up, I used to talk to them about it.

12

Nope, I don’t smoke.

That is damn good! Keep it up.

13

I wouldn’t worry about it…I am terrified of hospitals and flying. Every time I go to the hospital – my blood pressure is high. On my recent health check it was 170/99 – it still got approved.

For years, I’ve had moderate hypertension. A few years back, in a private hospital in Singapore, they did a 24 hour monitor (literally, where they put a blood pressure machine on your body for 24 hours and it measures your BP at work, rest, and play)

The results – I have fleeting moderate hypertension at certain periods of the day. However, when you take the averages for the whole day – my BP is fine…I take medicine as a precaution, but it is at the level where it is not even needed.

I wouldn’t trust most machines at hospitals. When I go there I’m nervous and those machines are used 100s of times each day and for people of many different body sizes and shapes – this desensitizes them.

At home readings, my BP ranges from 120-30 over 60 to 70. 50-60 beats per minute. It is never high. However, as soon as my anxiety starts after setting foot in a hospital or an airplane – the readings are sky-high.

If you are worried about it – go out and buy one from a health shop (1000-3000NT). Take your readings in the morning, afternoon, and evenings. Record them on paper for a month. This should give you a good idea of your overall BP

14

Best…post…ever…on…this…topic.

15

Some very good posts on BP here! In my opinion as the brother of a nurse in The USA. They don’t always do a good job in Taiwan when measuring BP.

Also it is a proven fact that many a persons BP goes up when they go to a hospital. Stress will spike levels of BP by 20-30- 40!!! points. I hate the doc’s office and mine would always go up at the Hospital in Taipei.

Once I had just returned from the USA and had it done by a nurse and on a machine. 126/80 and 128/81 respectively. Then in Taipei 7 days later 149/95! :astonished:

We should all keep it under check, but the best things to do are the ones we already know.

No smoking.
Physical exercise.
Good diet.
Moderate drinking.
REST! aka reduce stress.(They don’t get that 1 in Taiwan).

I myself am against medicine unless someone has very serious BP/Hyper. It can be lowered naturally.

16

I had spikes of up to 160 over 85. Usually after fighting traffic for an hour on my motorcycle in 40 degree heat on my way to the hospital. stress and smoking are probably the biggest reason for my high blood pressure. I started having spikes in blood pressure and pulse at night while sleeping. my pulse would race to 90 beats per minute and my blood pressure would go to about 150. I started to measure my blood pressure every hour and I traced it down to snacking or smoking right before bed and stress. I also found that it goes up about 10 points whenever the wifey is home. right now I’m at 127 over 85 but I’m damn hungry and need a smoke.

17

I went to the doctors… He says my blood pressure is higher than average, its 150 over 100. And thats about all he told me. Is there anything I should be doing? He said, “don’t drink tea or coffee for a couple of days.” Can this be all?

18

Culd be. You are border line.You may well be able to bring your numbers back into spec by merely doing as he suggested.

I have been dealing w/HBP for about 10 yrs now.

19

I’ve been getting readings of 140/80 to 145/90 on average, and spiked at 160/95 or something like that during very stressful week recently. The latter didn’t cause me to flunk my visa health test, btw. But I’m going to make some lifestyle changes to see if I can bring it down.

Reading up on hbp yesterday, I found that in addition to cutting sodium intake (including MSG and salt) and losing weight through diet and exercise, one should drink green tea, and increasing potassium intake through natural dietary means was also recommended. Here are some of the foods listed as high in potassium:

dried dates, raisins, and dried apricots (Jason’s has dried dates and apricots without sulphur, and boy do they taste better than the regular kind loaded with sulphur and other preservatives!)
banana chips (anyone have a good source or recipe? I don’t want all the sugar some have.)
low-salt or salt-free roasted seeds and nuts
kiwi, bananas, oranges, pears, nectarines, OJ,
potatoes with skin (baked), spinach, tomato products,
milk, low-fat, low-sugar yogurt,
zucchini, romaine lettuce, mushrooms, cucumber, apples,
and legumes incl. soybeans, lentils, kidney beans, & split peas
lean meats, fish, and poultry without salt

Since weight loss is an important part of HBP control, one should replace other foods with these, rather than just adding these, of course.

20

[quote=“Dragonbones”]

Reading up on hbp yesterday, I found that in addition to cutting sodium intake (including MSG and salt) and losing weight through diet and exercise, one should drink green tea[/quote]

But MSG and salt are national dishes here. Very difficult to find a restaurant where liberal doses are not applied. I also thought that they lace everything with salt to compensate for salts lost due to sweating