High Blood Pressure

[Mrs-Christmas]

Hi Guys,

Just joined the group as I am suffering from high blood pressure,

Got home today and did a 'at home' reading - 161/105 not good eh.

Has anyone got any tips?

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum! A good starting point would be to check the BHF Blood Pressure webpages - there is a downloadable booklet - and ask any questions.

[Doedoe]

Hi, from experience it depends on your age, what you had been doing before checking BP. If you are on medication this needs adjusting by the GP. BP needs checking after resting about 20-30 minutes. Perhaps look at your diet. If you're not seeing a GP and your BP stays around this level you need to make an appointment, something else may be lurking. Good luck.

[G_Cyclist]

I'm a healthy weight and exercise regularly but found out a couple of years ago that my blood pressure was higher than it should be.

What worked for me, was being quite obsessive about reducing the amount of salt in my diet. Read the labels on food and try to keep within the RDA of 6g. Even some breakfast cereals can be high in salt. I cut down significantly on the amount of bread I eat. Almost every lunch used to be something on toast or something in bread rolls. I now generally have something in a jacket potato or with pasta for lunch.

[jimmyq in reply to G_Cyclist]

Has your BP come down?

[Mrs-Christmas in reply to jimmyq]

Yes 139/84 - good news

[JonathanH in reply to G_Cyclist]

May I ask if the bread was white or wholemeal?

[G_Cyclist in reply to JonathanH]

It was wholemeal but I think virtually all bread has a relatively high salt content, compared to potatoes, pasta and cous-cous which have no added salt

[Dolphin14]

This is a pretty high blood pressure. Hard to know how accurate those home machines are. If I got more than one reading like that in one or two day monitoring I would call the md.

Write the bps down, call if they remain high. That's what I would do.

[robert1957]

Please research magnesium deficiency

[JonathanH]

It seems that sugar and refined carbs raise blood pressure because the elevated insulin levels that result cause your kidneys to retain sodium.

If you are overweight and eat sugar/refined carbs, then you need to correct those things. Sugar/refined carbs drive hunger and, if you're the same as me, will find that your appetite is controlled if you stop eating those and and start 16:8 intermittent fasting (do Google it).

This may not apply to you but, if it does, I hope it helps.