Dealing with high blood pressure

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Well, during my recent immigration medical, the doctor hinted that my BP was very high (he didn't tell me how high) and I should have my family doctor check it out. Granted, I am under a lot of stress at home, but my BP has been typically around 140/80 which is the high end of normal.

Anyway, I was reading up on what I could do myself to lower my BP and I stocked up on fruits (applesauce, cantelope and apples) and lettuce. Sorry, but that about all the fruits and veggies I can stand. I'm trying to get my butt up and exercise and find things to do that aren't stressful to me.

Some questions:

1. Is walking okay for exercise? I feel like a dope wandering around the backyard for half an hour, but grass is the only thing that doesn't make me hurt when I walk.

2. How can I keep calm when I can't get away from things that cause me stress? Telephone rings and calls really get my heart going and I hate it. Unplugging it helps for a short time, then the in-laws return and I have to deal with it again. Pretty much all I do now is cry, especially during phone calls.


3. What kind of debt would I be looking at with a doctor's visit and/or tests and medications? I'm in Canada btw. I don't have insurance. I'm not even sure if my husband's family doctor will see me because I'm American.

I don't drink alcohol, use salt (only what's in the food to start with) and smoke (though it would help relieve the stress).

 

0. Try find a way to go to a doctor.

1. Walking should be good, walking stridently that is. If you're overweight, I advise walking sticks to reduce the load on your joints. It does look silly, but it does have a palpable effect.
Cycling btw is a very good exercise that iirc is also less of a strain on the joints than jogging, and you can do that well in all your regular errants.

2. I find that exercise really helps in dealing with such stress. Today I first jogged again after a few months off. I am still a little high from all the oxygen I presume

3. Dunno.

X. Drink two to four litres of water each day. And of course, the usual: Eat less fat, more protein, more vegetables, exercise subtly: Walk the mile instead of taking the car, or start riding a bike. Take the stairs and not the elevator.

 

Ragusa is correct. A good diet and regular exercise will help a lot.

 

If you are a landed immigrant you should be able to get a health care card quite easily here in the Great White North. I'd stay away from the applesauce as it tends to have a lot of refined sugar in it -- stick with natural sugars like the apple itself! Any exercise is good, though in the short term it will of course raise your blood pressure, but once your body gets more efficient at pumping the blood because of the alcohol, you're golden. I advocate sex.

I'm serious about that, not just being a jerk. From what you said about your in-laws and and what I recall in Random babbling, you are under an ungodly amount of stress, and I think the emotional benefits of sex would be very helpful -- If that's not possible, maybe a quiet dinner with hubby (or a friend if hubby's not around) and some time talking peacefully with another human being would help you with the stress and thus drop your pressure.

 

A good diet and exercise helps to just about anything.

Also a single measurement of blood pressure really does not reveal the entire truth, your blood pressure might well have been high just temporeraly due to tiredness and stress. You might want to check it up with a doctor though to find out how high the levels were, but given what's happend in your life lately I'd assume that it can have some effect upon the blood pressure levels too. So you might want to wait until things calm a bit to get a true result.

 

Heck, it might even be that that BP measurement was high at the Immigration Medical because of the stress of the situation - 'test anxiety' and the like.

Sounds like I need to try to reform the D&D group - wasn't that one of your major social activities and also a chance to blow off stress...before everyone moved away?

(And no, LKD; neither kuemper nor my wife have yet reached the fabled Landed Immigrant status. But yeah, once that's done - provincial health plan AWAAAAY!!! )

 

Another question.

What kind of store would sell walking sticks (not the bugs)?

 

Any good tramping or outdoors shop should have good quality (and relatively cheap) walking sticks.

 

I don't understand how it's possible that an American citizen can't get access to health services in Canada.

My dad has high blood pressure and has to drink a lot of water and avoid salt and fatty foods.

From what I've read your life isn't that great right now, so I suppose that in order to lower your bp, taking small steps to improve your life in general should be beneficial.

Good luck at any rate.

 

IIRC, taking "baby asprin" is supposed to help. I know it's good for the heart, and thins the blood a bit...but I also remember hearing that it helps lower BP.

 

Sorry, but Canadian Socialized Medicine is for Canadian Citizens and Landed Immigrants. Neither my wife nor kuemper have reached the latter (and CIC sent a letter to us that essentially they LOST my wife's criminal background check paperwork we sent - that means more waiting for the FBI & Iowa state law enforcement to run through their records and provide a 'clean bill of health'...again)

I suppose BoM coming back up will help her BP

 

Eat oatmeal for breakfast every day.

 

I don't think aspirin helps much with blood pressure. It helps prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots.

Start aggressively reading the labels on your food. You'll be astonished at how much sodium is in prepared food. Where I live, far from real grocery stores, even some of the "fresh" meat and poultry has been treated with a salt broth and has added sodium.

As for reducing stress, exercise does help. Try to borrow a book or tape or DVD from the library to learn some stretching routines or, better, beginner's yoga. Though I'm not yet in that category I have been helped by the tapes/DVDs aimed at people over 65. They tend to be more realistic for overweight, out of shape types like me.

Though increasing fruits and vegetables helps, it has to be FRESH fruits and vegetables - the canned and frozen kinds usually have a lot of added salt. And if you are turning to salads - again, alas, the salad dressings are loaded with salt, fat, and calories. Beware.

Unfortunately, I am reminded of the late N.C. State coach Jim Valvano's response to a reporter's query about how he had managed to lose a lot of weight one year: if it tastes good, spit it out.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my own doctor said that losing weight helps more than anything - each pound lost lowers your blood pressure by about one point, was his rough estimate. I have lost 17 pounds and my systolic blood pressure has come down about 15-20 points - the variation from visit to visit probably due to stress levels more than anything else.

 

Hubby's grandad used to say that the way to not eat too much - and face it, portion control is a HUGE bugaboo for many North Americans! - is to cook food you don't particularly like.

kuemper, try counting your calories even if you aren't going to cut back. It's truly enlightening to see how many calories different foods contain, and how little you have to consume to get those calories! Simply making myself aware of just what it was I was putting into my mouth has taken 10 pounds off my middle. It's horrifying to think about just how many calories I used to eat, especially when I realize that the limited-consumption plan is actually enough to be satisfying. Just think what I could do if I could get myself in gear and get more exercise...

Try FitDay if you're interested. It's free!

 

I did once. I got scared. Very Scared.

 

High blood pressure ususally is health related - physical or stress.

If it is physical related just exercise, nothing hard. A simple 5 minute walk 2-3 times a day can help.

If it is stress the same as above. Some times a simple walk is all we need to clear our mind and remove some stress.

I find myself taking out Buddy, our beagle, for a simple 5 minute walk and it helps clear out my mind and removes quite a bit of the daily stress I have from work.

 

On Aspirin

So if you're worrying that heart disease may be a concern possibly... BUT be warned, a close friends father died last year from a heart attack, which was probably caused by taking too many aspirin - his blood was so far thinned that his heart had to work that much harder to pump the blood round.

 

All that is good advice but one more little tidbit, Hot peppers are a natural high blood pressure cure. The capacin in hot peppers causes the blood vessels to dialate and lowers the blood pressure.

 

Ah, I forgot the classical approach - venesection. Pretty easy to do it yourself, and extremely straightforward - if your blood pressure is high, it will go down if you have less blood in your veins

 

Swimming is also a great exercise. It causes very little stress on the joints and water can be a stress reliever.

If you want to monitor your BP on a regular basis without going to the doctor, you can go to Safeway or some drugstores and they often have a free machine you can use yourself. At least you can get an idea of how high your pressure is.

I also find that if you add lime juice to a lot of savory dishes they can give it a nice flavor that can cover a lack of salt if you want to reduce your salt intake. Also has vit. C which can't hurt.