Do you remember the day you found out you had high blood pressure?

[SimoneHU]

Share your diagnosis feelings and experience with the community!

[philaustin]

I don't remember the exact day but it was around 6 years ago. I had been undergoing tests for months that eventually led to me being diagnosed with Coleliac disease after having endoscopy. My GP suddenly announced on one of my many visits that I had high blood pressure and prescribed amlodipine and benzofluromethiazide. He was more concerned about the blood pressure than the Coeliac disease, which also came with a free dose of osteoporosis. 

Being diagnosed with high blood pressure has caused me problems. Previously I had been able to go SCUBA diving, afterwards a specialist diving doctor said I wasn't fit to dive. Holiday insurance has increased and my previously healthy sex life has taken a dive. 

Only a short time before I had perfectly normal blood pressure, so what happened? Did coeliac disease cause the high blood pressure? Was it stress at work? I enjoy a drink now and again, but I don't smoke, and my diet before diagnosis was quite healthy; good wholemeal bread, rarely eating 'junk' food, cycling 20 miles a day to work and back, and having a 30 inch waist. I donated blood every 6 months and had just received my 50 donation gold badge.

Now I have trouble keeping my weight down, have a rubbish life, am depressed and would probably drink more if it wasn't for my wife. I wish the high blood pressure had never been discovered!

[Hidden in reply to philaustin]

Congratulations on getting you gold badge for blood donations. I only managed to get my bronze badge and was 2 donations off my silver when I had to stop donating.

Sorry to hear you've had so much bother. I know my high blood pressure was initially out down to stress of work, but I cut out salt from my diet and started doing Tia Chi which kept it under control.

I was diagnosed with depression at the start of 2015 and had been on a good healthy diet and exercise plan on which I was loosing weight with. I then gain 2 st in 2 months. I put that down to the tablets I was on and not getting out of the house. I hope you are able to find a way to control your weight and feel better about your life.

Take care.

[philaustin in reply to Hidden]

The trouble is,  I don't think anyone is really bothered about how we developed our health issues.  When I first saw my GP, and I hadn't seen him for years, I gave him a long list of the symptoms I was suffering from (tiredness, anaemia, migraines, diaorreah, bloating, flatulence....) and he said "I have seven and a half minutes for each patient. Which of these symptoms do you want me to look at". It took 6 months of tests including cameras up my ass and down my throat before i was finally told I was coeliac. By that time I had high blood pressure as well. Is it any wonder. I feel cheated.

[Hidden in reply to philaustin]

I'm afraid I've been one of the patients in my practise who's made all other appointments late after mine at times. My doctor has been great with helping me with my anxiety and depression. I am glad he's so good and has been able to help me out. I just don't like being on pills and he knows it. I just know that for some reason they don't like to take people off the blood pressure medication for some reason and I think that is wrong cause my Mum has problems with her BP going low at times and they still give her pills for high blood pressure that really seems silly to me as she's already broken her ankle in one fall so I worry about her taking dizzy spells.

I've had a lot of tests in the past come back regularly as border line when I've had problems and when I queried it they used to just shrug. So when they did that I went to another doctor in the surgery until I found one that would take me seriously as until this past couple of years I was hardly at the doctor's but now I am there virtually every month.

So now I'm investigating natural remedies to try and prevent issues in the future.

[Smiley881 in reply to Hidden]

One of the reasons why the Doc doesn't want to take Patients of the HP medicine could be because of a chemical our bodies produce that case the arteries to narrow causing the HP.This chemical is called  angiotensin.I know because I take a Medicine called Losartan witch blocks the Angiotensin11.When your arteries can relax then the easier it is for blood to flow to your heart.Don't be thinking that your blood pressure will go down all by itself.Its best to get the HP stablelized before going to any natural remedies to lower it.I can remember a time when I wouldn't touch a HP pill because I had heard they have Flouride in them which is Rat Poison.The Blood Pressure medicine I take has no such thing in it.The one thing I hate is that I cannot take any other stuff with this medicine such as potassium.The Medicine says it contains Potassium but half is unnatural.

[Hidden in reply to Smiley881]

I know I will probably be on them from the rest of my life, but I am going to also work on my nutrition and exercise to ensure I am taking the lowest dosages of medication as possible.

[Agora1 in reply to philaustin]

That's the problem now a days.  Doctors have only a limited time to see each  patient, so it boils down to what you want addressed.  A lot of important issues then get put on hold or swept under the carpet. 

[Hidden]

I was told when I was 30 that I was border line high blood pressure and would have to be monitored. I took A Tai Chi class and reduced the salt in my diet. Which helped until the Tai Chi class stopped. Then last year I was getting my eye checked and was told to see my doctor, wasn't surprised to find out my blood pressure was really high as I had just recently split from my husband and was suffering from anxiety and depression. Since high blood pressure runs in the family I thought I had done exceptional well to go for 16 years of being monitored and not needing to start on high blood pressure medication. I have now reduced my sugar intake to see if this helps as well as increasing the number of vegetables in my diet and cutting out a lot of the processed foods I was used to.

[Smiley881 in reply to Hidden]

Your HP Probably crept back up because of the chemical our bodies produce called Angiotinsin11.You will probably always need medicine to control this chemical that causes our bodies to retain water and narrows the Arteries.I take Losartan for my HP.The Losartan tablets help the arteries to relax and help to stop water retension.

[Hidden in reply to Smiley881]

I'm on Amlodipine and Perindoprol at the moment.

[Agora1]

I remember when I found out I had high blood pressure.  I discovered it by taking my own at home as well as in the pharmacies.  Whenever I would go to the doctor, he didn't seem to think anything of it because he knew I was anxious.  So time went by. When in the hospital for another ailment, I called the nurse in the middle of the night and told her I was in A-Fib.  Then and only then was I told I had high blood pressure as well.  I am now on both heart medication, b/p medication and Warfarin.  Sometimes we need to be our own advocate.

[Katiex]

Hi all, I remember the day, I was 12 years old when I got the diagnosis. At that point I was struggling with heart palpitations which left me as I started on 2.5mg of lisinopril which I take at night. 

[Thyroidmeg]

I found out I had high bp a couple of years ago . I think it's somehow related to total thyroidectomy but I feel doctors don't care they just want to prescribe pills . They only do tsh and t4 thyroid tests but I would like to find out if I am converting properly. On 200 Levo a day and normal tsh. 

Still new to Bp meds not sure what dose I'll end up on 

[Morgan]

Yes it was during an operation in hospital and was still high weeks later so had all the tests etc. One of my valves was sticking so pills were prescribedand once a suitable combination was found I have been on them ever since. (About 14 years)

[2412]

Hi

I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 16 years ago I'm now 47. I had been suffering from headaches and had a really stiff neck don't think they connected tho .My friend persuaded me to go to doctor .The doctor took my blood pressure and sent me straight to hospital as it was through the roof .Was so close to having a stroke .Spent sometime in hospital until it settled .Then sent home with tablets and blood pressure monitor .

I think it was all stress related as I was in an unhappy stressful horrible abusive marriage .

My blood pressure never really got under control until I left after 23 years of mental abuse .Im not saying this was the reason for my high blood pressure as other things in my life contributed .My youngest son tried to commit suicide aged eleven.He was then diagnosed with aspergers and my oldest boy went off rails a bit .Also I was working 60 hrs a week as a child minder .All this going on and I got no support from my then husband .My husband lost the sight in one eye so had to care for him as well until he could go back to work .I would help with his work while he was off too .I was up at five everyday and never stopped .

My sons are all good now and doing well with good jobs and settled .

A total change in lifestyle has been so good for my health .

I am now with a lovely new partner and guess what my blood pressure is almost normal now lol .I work part time and am trying to get fit again after my asthma flared up .Thats why I'm on here

I take amlodipine 5mg and bendrflumethiazide 2.5mg a day which keeps things ticking over 😃🌻🌺

[Hbp200]

I remember it clearly, I was 13 and my aunt Mary an internist checked my pressure. It was 190/100. At 16 I was given a stress test and 3 minutes in my bp was 296/240! I then started to take my pressure daily. I even met my wife at a hypertension clinic. She was a bodybuilder who used steroids causing her hypertension. Even my 2 daughters have high blood pressure. Update. My wife's pressure was recently over 300 both systolic and diastolic. When I went to take her pressure l was horrified to have the cuff at 300 and no sounds were heard. In ER a arterial line was used. Her pressure was 377/350! She is currently on 10 pressure pills as well as weekly IV medicine. My daughter Sophie's systolic was 206 last week. I work for W.A. Baum whose in house medical staff checks employees pressures anytime. I have many blood pressure monitoring units. If anyone would like a Baum aneroid contact me .

[hc75]

About five years ago when I was 70 I began to give respite care to my mother aged 93 to help my younger sister. Although we had five visits a day from carers there was lots to do. Mum had become very testing and demanded my constant attention and company and got distressed if I for instance used my laptop in the evenings to chat to my husband. I was doing around 6 weeks with her and 6 weeks at home in a different town. I began to get very irritable and normally without any health concerns I checked my bp at the doctor's surgery and it was 180/96. I saw the doctor and he told me not to worry about it and when I was not stressed it would probably be alright. I was very short-tempered all the time I looked after Mum which made me feel very unhappy about myself. When I returned home and saw my own doctor she was horrified and immediately put me on meds which has kept it generally stable at 124/65 range for the past five years and without the bouts of short temper. Mum died shortly after I began taking the meds and I have always felt so very guilty about snapping at her or not being my normal chatty self. If only the first doctor had helped me. My own doctor said I could have had a stroke. Why are there two schools of thought about treating or not treating bp?

[Sphygmogirl90]

I was a teen and found out my pressure was very high when I tried to donate blood. I was rejected because my pressure was over the limit of 160/1100.I was told to see my physician immediately. I was sent to a nephrologist and a hypertension specialist. I remember when I was 13 my pediatrician told my mom that my systolic pressure was mildly elevated. No treatment was ordered. I have had 24 hr bp tests and all types of cardiac testing. I have only a slightly thickened left ventricle.