Taiwan Gave Me High Blood Pressure: It's Official

OK, so I took my health test at Ren’Ai Hospital today in case I need it for my upcoming ARC application.

The first test was blood pressure and considering I’m a fit, athletic 22 year old I was pretty stunned when I was told I have abnormally high blood pressure of 160(!)/86. The kindly nurse retested me several times on both arms until we got it down to 141 so I could pass, but that’s still too high. I’m self employed and work too hard but I’ve done that since the age of 14.

I have always taken excellent care of my health - eat well, never smoked, very rarely drink, don’t drive, excercise daily, weight train - and part of this has been a yearly checkup with my doctor back in England. A few months ago my BP was 118/68 so no doubt the stress of business + visa registration coupled with the bad Taipei air has pushed it up. I’m told 160 is pretty bad for anyone so I’m going to take it easier, keep a close eye on it and see if it improves when I move to Da Keng in a few weeks.

Does anyone else have any fun stories of damage done to them and theirs by our beloved Taiwan? I know I’ve heard several accounts of Taipei/Kaohsiung-related bronchitis.

see previous discussion here:

forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … ure#410743

it may be something to worry about, or an incorrect measure.

I have this problem all the time when taking the ARC medical. My BP is fine when I have it checked back in Canada. I don’t trust the machines here, nor the staff that use them.

For example, on my last medical they put me down as weighing 70.9kg when in fact I weigh 105 kg. That’s a big difference, and nobody even looked at it and thought hey, wait a minute. That can’t be right

I would say they screwed it up and they don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t think your blood pressure can change just like that. Especially if you’re 22 years old.

I did consider this as the nice old lady working the machine was at least 150 (best guess). I really did feel awful today though after abnormally high stress from work/visas/moving house/relationship - just pick every category in the Forums list except parenting and I’ve got something to moan about. I’m sure everyone’s had a High Blood Pressure Moment in Taiwan, right?

Cheers for the input, guys.

I think on top of the ‘one size fits all’ approach of the big automatic machine is the obvious point of stress dealing with the health test in a foreign environment. By the time I had found the hospital, tracked down the health test admin office, filled the form in triplicate and worked out what was going on I wasn’t feeling my tip-toppest anyway.

The weigh-in you mentioned is interesting because I noticed the same thing… I wouldn’t have noticed but I’ve been on a weight training program and tracking it daily. The day before I weighed in at 71.5kg but they put me down as 66kg. How the hell did they get it wrong by 35kg though?!

Another peculiarity… I wear contact lenses and recently had a new pair measured up in the UK. For some reason the eye exam found me quite a way off perfect vision - with the lenses in. With these babies I can see to fricken Timbuktu. God bless Taiwan.

[quote=“Dr_Zoidberg”]I have this problem all the time when taking the ARC medical. My BP is fine when I have it checked back in Canada. I don’t trust the machines here, nor the staff that use them.

For example, on my last medical they put me down as weighing 70.9kg when in fact I weigh 105 kg. That’s a big difference, and nobody even looked at it and thought hey, wait a minute. That can’t be right[/quote]

Well, that’s probably why, then.

The last time I had my BP checked (at Bumrungrad, in Bangkok), it was 150 over something. The reason was pretty straightforward – in trying to get to the hospital ten minutes earlier, for an extremely important appointment, for which I was running late because the hotel hadn’t done my wakeup call, two different Bangkok cab drivers had both tried to take me on rides around town. I had to bail out into traffic twice. I made it very clear to the third one that I knew exactly where we were going, how to get there, and that he had better not play games or I’d bail out without paying him too. He took me directly there and I gave him a nice tip.

That afternoon, the hospital rechecked, and my BP was well below the safety limits.

I’ve also come down with unexplained high blood pressure in Taiwan. If you want to be sure you can get a personal testing unit at carrefour or any other such store. They cost about $1500 for a cheaper one, I believe. You could also pop buy a local clinic and ask to use their machine, they probably wouldn’t mind.

160 is pretty high, I would try to find out what the problem is.

Those goofballs at the medical centers can’t even measure height correctly. My husband has apparantly grown 3 inches since last year (with shoes off). :loco:

I wouldn’t worry too much about your results until you can confirm that they are accurate. Maybe get tested next time you are at home…

The thing about your blood pressure is that it fluctuates. If that stops then the gigs up. I think the best way to test your BP is ten minutes after any activity. If it is 160 and you have been sitting at your computer for 10 minutes then call Houston. To do that you need to have a BP machine to monitor it. They are fairly cheap. If you measure it at the same time every day for a while you’ll have an idea what your average BP is. I think a one off reading is fairly meaningless.

I’m soon to be 28 years old (next week) and arrived in Taiwan three years ago. When I had arrived, I was in good shape at 260lbs and very muscular. I dropped my weight down to 230 at one point. When I went into Ren Ai Hospital for my health check my blood pressure was a sound 115. My tests in Canada were in healthy order as well.

Anyway, I started my Anabolic Steroid therapy when I was 18 and had stopped at 24, just before comming to Taiwan. I was healthy or so I had thought. I started using Steroids again shortly after my arrival in Taiwan, trained hard which increased my weight/muscle mass up to 280lbs and almost as strong as my ‘glory’ days back in Canada. To make a long story short, I stopped working out due to a severe injury that I had recieved in Taiwan. Stopped training almost all together (only training moderately although seeing improvement) and am now sitting at a weight of 310lbs to 340lbs.

Here’s the kicker (no pun intended), I went into Ren Ai the other day and had my blood pressure taken. It read out a whopping 160. I’m 28 years old for Christ’s Sake…WOW. The doctor and nurses were concerned which made me feel nervous as well. For awhile now I’ve been feeling strange and overly tired. I’ve developed blackness around my eyes and just don’t feel as well as I used to. So this is a warning to everyone out there:

If you’re an athelete and need an edge, train harder. Steroids do not do anything but damage your body. I’ve known this for a long time but never thought that it would hinder me. I was taking proper precautions and through educating myself I thought I could somehow get around it. Sure I was a super star playing sports, fighting and physically pleasing to the eye but…meh…I’m turning 28 and and my blood pressure is through the roof.

Besides all that, I have to wonder why has living in Taiwan turned me away from what once made me happy. Fitness. Don’t know why but I started smoking heavily and drinking excessively in my duration here. I guess it could be on an account of stress but if I’m going to point fingers then I’d have to point them at myself. A glutton. Everything to the excess. I’m not lookin for a pity party. In fact, I’m angry with myself.

You obviously have to get your weight dramatically down to get your blood pressure back under control.

I see expats here with no regard at all for the consequences of their lifestyle.
I admire their attitude. Here for a good time, not a long time. The locals are living in a time warp with fat being equal to prosperous and the more smoke and pollution the better.

Not exactly a great environment to get you motivated.

I assume you took steroids under medical control otherwise we will need to eliminate mention of them. No illegal activities.

I don’t exactly surround myself with motivated people. The people that do seem motivated within the Expat community seem to rub me the wrong way. Well, not all but some.

It’s no mystery that I’m soul searching. I left alot back home that I had going for me. I’ve made alot of mistakes (Taiwan and in Canada) and alot of it I can’t change. I have my ups and downs regarding depression and such but I really try to forget about it. I lack focus which is hard to gain
when you’re distracted with guilt and regret. I’m working on my inner strength more so than my outter, I suppose.

I think Taiwan has affected my blood pressure too, however my doctor said not drinking wouldn’t affect it much (Australian doctor) and I’ve stopped smoking for a year now. My blood pressure is ~160/90. I used to have low blood pressure but I guess that was 10 years ago.

I think its mostly a lifestyle thing and Taiwan just lends itself to high stress (completely new environment, different language etc), poor food, harder to keep fit. Also everything is just too convenient here. It tends to lead to a more sedentary lifestyle

I’ve just bothered to read the entire thread and noticed that maybe I shouldn’t mope about this afterall. It could very well be a miscalculation on their part.

Certainly doesn’t change the fact that I should get my weight down and cut out the excess.

Meh…jumped the gun. I did find it strange when my resting heart rate was 79 but my bp was 160.

I had mine tested again recently and it’s still way too high. I’m 23, never smoked, have maybe a beer every 3 months and was brought up to enjoy healthy food. I’ve done a fair bit of weight training since 18 but never put on much bulk because I didn’t want to give up running. I was a spritely 78kg (170lbs?) and lost about 10kg of muscle in the past five months because I’ve often been so worked up about visas or meetings that I literally forget to eat. I carried on weight training while I was still in Taipei but there wasn’t much point since my diet had gone to shit.

This is one of the reasons why I recently decided to offload the biggest source of stress in my life and sell off most of my business. I only have myself to blame… I underestimated the stress involved with moving to a foreign country and the pressure combined with work has got on top of me in a big way. I’m hoping that I’ll gradually start to sleep better and have more motivation to get back into running and weights. I’ve also been thinking of banning myself from using the scooters at weekends because I used to walk everywhere and this definitely contributed to my overall health.

I want to get training and put the weight back on as quickly as possible but my first priority is to get up to my old fitness level. I’m kind of annoyed with myself that I’ve let my fitness slide because I was overweight and unfit throughout school and worked hard to get to a point that could be described as ‘athletic’.

Do you find yourself stressed out as well or is it just a general lack of motivation?

[quote=“M0NSTER”]I’m soon to be 28 years old (next week) and arrived in Taiwan three years ago. When I had arrived, I was in good shape at 260lbs and very muscular. I dropped my weight down to 230 at one point. When I went into Ren’ai Hospital for my health check my blood pressure was a sound 115. My tests in Canada were in healthy order as well.
[/quote]

Both. I find that my Taiwan experience hasn’t been all it was suppose to be upon my arrival. Yes, at first I was having a riot of a time but now personal stress along with poor motivation have contributed to my downfall. What’s to be motivated about when weekends/weekdays consist of a trip to 7-11, the bar or a nightclub, just to get pissed up and chase skirts while discussing distain for their host country and women.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a ‘fitness’ community here. All strut. If there is a solid community of people here that like to train, play contact sports and enjoy the science behind it, I have yet to find them. Most people I meet do it for reasons I had let go at 21. Attraction. Hmmm I have met very few people who do it as a lifestyle.

It’s completely my fault for letting certain circumstances defeat me. It just goes to show you that you’re never as strong as you think you are.

Are you in Taipei? I’m still in contact with some guys up there who you might get on with. One of them is in his 50s, owns a gym and recently finished a book on bodybuilding nutrition. His gym is a skanky looking place but everyone there bar a few dickheads are unpretentious types who go for the fitness or competition training. I have a lot of respect for the work some of those guys put in - two of them were heading to a US competition just before I left Taipei.

Most of my stress seems to come from aimlessness and uncertainty… after being focussed for years on getting into Taiwan, when I actually had all the papers in my hands I suddenly had to think about business, life and all that jazz. Felt like a punch in the face and I only started getting a handle on it after setting myself some major goals.

What about organising a few tough hiking trips with friends or getting out of the city at weekends instead of hitting the bars? I know it’s easier said than done but that’s what kept me sane in Taipei. Never been a fan of big cities though… feels like the whole place is conspiring to keep you unfit.

Sounds like you just maybe need to hang around in different circles and/or get some time away to do things you enjoy. Then again, I guess you already know that and the problem is actually doing it.

[quote=“M0NSTER”]Both. I find that my Taiwan experience hasn’t been all it was suppose to be upon my arrival. Yes, at first I was having a riot of a time but now personal stress along with poor motivation have contributed to my downfall. What’s to be motivated about when weekends/weekdays consist of a trip to 7-11, the bar or a nightclub, just to get pissed up and chase skirts while discussing distain for their host country and women.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a ‘fitness’ community here. All strut. If there is a solid community of people here that like to train, play contact sports and enjoy the science behind it, I have yet to find them. Most people I meet do it for reasons I had let go at 21. Attraction. Hmmm I have met very few people who do it as a lifestyle. .[/quote]

Stayed there for a couple of years. Didn’t have any health issue.

wow, I have heard of grave digging but 11 years? :joy: