Yikes blood pressure high

[limmy01]

Wife was feeling dizzy christmas eve so decided to take her blood pressure, this was shown as being low, I thought I would take mine as the machine was out, low and behold, it was high and mine as always been in a normal range.

So im guessing that my job [travelling living at a hotel bar and restaurant] age and the ever expanding waist line is now catching up with me..

Age 48, 16stone 5ft 8, drink too much, eat to many takeaways and go heavy on the salt, also high caffeine drinker.

Not going to lie, bricking myself now and feel sick too the stomach! Going to be booking the next available doctors appointment on Monday...

Any tips for trying to get it low and also changing my god awful lifestyle?

Readings so far

25th am 147/89 144/88 137/90
25th pm 150/87 147/89

26th am 154/94 146/95
26th pm 158/91 148/95 150/92

[ATG]

Most important thing is making the decision to sort it out, and you've just done that.

My BiL was in a similar position to you this time last year. He got talking to a friend we tend to see annually at Xmas. He's a surgeon who chops out bowel cancer. He'd decided to start getting the fat jabs and make some "lifestyle" changes. BiL decided to give it a go too. He's lost several stone, got into cycling, now books himself into hotels with a gym when he's traveling for work. Huge change in just one year. Again, it all started with a bit of determination.

[foccer]

Thats not really that high. Higher than they would like but nothing too drastic.

If mine was that on a regular basis my doctor would be happy rather than giving me 5 tablets to get the numbers down to near yours

[Yahonza]

High blood pressure is one of the riskiest risk factors, but also one of the most modifiable.
You already know what is causing it and could make some lifestyle changes (weight, diet, alcohol).

All your GP will do is ask you to monitor your blood pressure for a week or 2 and then maybe put you on anti-hypertensives.
Christmas probably isn't the best time to take your BP though as a representative test - for obvious reasons.

[cliffords]

That's higher than desired but not too bad .
Stop drinking and it will go down. Loose some weight or get taller,that will also bring it down . Stop the salt .

My experience was the alcohol. Went from higher than yours to less than yours in about 4 weeks. Stopped drinking alcohol altogether. Feel so much better for it always. Mood, energy, weight loss, lower blood pressure and all the other bits work better too.

[RammyMP]

I’m a similar age and weight to you, my BP is higher and I’m on three medications to control it (not that it’s a competition). I’m overweight and drink too much that’s my problem. I’m going to sort my st out in the new year but in the meantime get yourself to the doctors to get it checked. High blood pressure is more common than you’d know and there’s loads of people our age on medication to deal with it than you’d think.

[98elise]

limmy01 said:

Wife was feeling dizzy christmas eve so decided to take her blood pressure, this was shown as being low, I thought I would take mine as the machine was out, low and behold, it was high and mine as always been in a normal range.

So im guessing that my job [travelling living at a hotel bar and restaurant] age and the ever expanding waist line is now catching up with me..

Age 48, 16stone 5ft 8, drink too much, eat to many takeaways and go heavy on the salt, also high caffeine drinker.

Not going to lie, bricking myself now and feel sick too the stomach! Going to be booking the next available doctors appointment on Monday...

Any tips for trying to get it low and also changing my god awful lifestyle?

Readings so far

25th am 147/89 144/88 137/90
25th pm 150/87 147/89

26th am 154/94 146/95
26th pm 158/91 148/95 150/92

They are high, but not dangerously high. I was similar to you at your age and vowed to make changes. Even with Medication it was still high ok for my age. Unfortunately I didn't make changes.

Early this year it stared creeping up again so 6m ago I changed my diet and lost over a stone. My BP is now in the perfect zone, and if it continues as a lose more weight I'm going to ask my doctor to reduce the Medication.

Christmas is probably not a good time to take your BP though. Stress and excess could be giving you a temporary spike. Take it twice a for a few days and do three readings a few minutes apart. Ignore the first reading as just taking it will give you a bit of anxiety.

[limmy01]

Cheers guys, feel slightly better and not full of dread doom and gloom.

Won't lie though it scared me, I guess there is also some locked away memory of my dad dying when I was 8 which was heart related .. probably the scare I need to get on top of my many bad habits in this fast paced world..

[ALawson]

Stop the booze, I used to do sobriety for the first six months of the year unless on holiday outside the UK.

Intermittent fasting should see you drop a few kg.

Drink water, more than you already do (at a guess).

Also are you not eating/drinking 20min before taking BP and are you seated with the cuff at the correct position on arm and having sat down for 5 mins?

[Sheets Tabuer]

Prompted by this I borrowed my dads machine, 150/113

That isn't good is it?

fk I have a needle phobia, do they jab you?

[CoolHands]

No booze and lose loads of weight and that would come right down.

[InitialDave]

As others say, that's not ridiculously high. It should be lower, but it's not a disaster.

Get your GP on the case, and brace yourself for it largely being advice you clearly already have a strong inkling of.

[rodericb]

use less salt, drink less alkyhol. Also relax when you're taking your blood pressure and if it seems high, relax a bit more and do the reading again. If still too high, relax yet more and take another reading.....

If you didn't drink, smoke or add salt and you were hitting 200 I'd be worried. That was me around five years ago and I didn't feel anything was wrong....

[cliffords]

rodericb said:

use less salt, drink less alkyhol. Also relax when you're taking your blood pressure and if it seems high, relax a bit more and do the reading again. If still too high, relax yet more and take another reading.....

If you didn't drink, smoke or add salt and you were hitting 200 I'd be worried. That was me around five years ago and I didn't feel anything was wrong....

I have done a few weeks of twice a day readings for a blood pressure diary. So 6 readings a day. I absolutely can do the above and pull my own reading right down relaxing and breathing. By the third reading I can have taken 25 off the first number.
The doctor told me she needed accurate daily readings and not false ones obtained with learnt tricks , otherwise the whole exercise is pointless and I am kidding myself. With weekly reading you do 42 readings then make the average calculation, but no point in pulling it down with relaxation methods that you are not using up a ladder cleaning out the gutters.

[croyde]

It has always puzzled me when even my doctor tells me to get to Zen levels of relaxation before taking a BP reading.

That's not real life!

I have high blood pressure and even with my doc quadrupling my Ramipril dose and myself starting exercising and running 5ks every 2 days, has not made any difference.

I'm reasonably athletic looking and hover around the 24 BMI mark.

Don't smoke but do like snacks and a bit of booze, but life is boring enough.

[Bill]

Sheets Tabuer said:

Prompted by this I borrowed my dads machine, 150/113

That isn't good is it?

fk I have a needle phobia, do they jab you?

Get an average of 3 readings, but no, not good.

This suggests getting help urgently...

https://www.nhs.uk/health-assessment-tools/check-y...

[snuffy]

cliffords said:

I have done a few weeks of twice a day readings for a blood pressure diary. So 6 readings a day. I absolutely can do the above and pull my own reading right down relaxing and breathing. By the third reading I can have taken 25 off the first number.
The doctor told me she needed accurate daily readings and not false ones obtained with learnt tricks , otherwise the whole exercise is pointless and I am kidding myself. With weekly reading you do 42 readings then make the average calculation, but no point in pulling it down with relaxation methods that you are not using up a ladder cleaning out the gutters.

I did one of those about a year ago now. The written instructions were to take 3 readings, and if they were reducing each time, to take further readings into they levelled off.

I have terrible white coat hypertension, whereby I can even get myself into a state when taking it at home myself.

So if I take it, and then think "oh, that's better than I was expecting", it stops me worrying as much, so the next reading is lower, and so on.

BP is certainly one of those things where the act of measuring it actually affects it (and always in a negative way).

[98elise]

Sheets Tabuer said:

Prompted by this I borrowed my dads machine, 150/113

That isn't good is it?

fk I have a needle phobia, do they jab you?

Thats quite high. Take it twice a day over the next few days. If it stays high see your doc.

They test your BP the same way (probably with the same machine) and put you on tablets to bring it down if its too high.

Unfortunately they will probably then send you for a blood test after you've been on the tablets for a while. That will mean drawing blood.

[98elise]

croyde said:

It has always puzzled me when even my doctor tells me to get to Zen levels of relaxation before taking a BP reading.

That's not real life!

I have high blood pressure and even with my doc quadrupling my Ramipril dose and myself starting exercising and running 5ks every 2 days, has not made any difference.

I'm reasonably athletic looking and hover around the 24 BMI mark.

Don't smoke but do like snacks and a bit of booze, but life is boring enough.

Your BP is supposed to spike when you're under stress, doing stuff etc, so no point taking it then. Its not supposed to be high when you're relaxed or asleep etc.

Unfortunately just being in the doctors surgery can push it up a bit so they really want you to relax. I now do mine at home over a number of days and submit the average online. Even then my first reading can be high.

[98elise]

snuffy said:

cliffords said:

I have done a few weeks of twice a day readings for a blood pressure diary. So 6 readings a day. I absolutely can do the above and pull my own reading right down relaxing and breathing. By the third reading I can have taken 25 off the first number.
The doctor told me she needed accurate daily readings and not false ones obtained with learnt tricks , otherwise the whole exercise is pointless and I am kidding myself. With weekly reading you do 42 readings then make the average calculation, but no point in pulling it down with relaxation methods that you are not using up a ladder cleaning out the gutters.

I did one of those about a year ago now. The written instructions were to take 3 readings, and if they were reducing each time, to take further readings into they levelled off.

I have terrible white coat hypertension, whereby I can even get myself into a state when taking it at home myself.

So if I take it, and then think "oh, that's better than I was expecting", it stops me worrying as much, so the next reading is lower, and so on.

BP is certainly one of those things where the act of measuring it actually affects it (and always in a negative way).

I am the same, and its very common.