My blood pressure puzzles me, I'd be grateful for advice. I brought my home monitor into the room I was sitting in and took my bp about half an hour later, it was 158/85. I didn't panic, did about a minute of deep breaths then took it again 3 times, readings were 120/72 then 116/70 and finally 114/69. My doctor is trying to get me to take bp meds as it's always super high in his office. I do have high cholesterol, as well, although hdl (the good cholesterol) and triglycerides are excellent and my cholesterol ratios are excellent. Doc also wants me on statins. I'd love to have some sort of test to see if my circulatory system was OK.... I would then not worry about my sometimes high bp and overall high cholesterol and feel happier about not taking the doctor's advice. I really hate taking meds.
Should I take BP meds? : My blood... - High Blood Pressu...
Should I take BP meds?
How old are you?
Hello ling - good question, that's probably relevant. I will be 75 in July. Other info.... I weigh 9st 12lb , not diabetic.
Are you considered overweight?
Your BP pattern sounds like my mom's. She's 86. After she turned 80, her BP started to have these spikes, mainly after meals cooked with salt and MSG.
We went low sodium and things were under control for a couple of years, till last year, when even the low sodium diet didn't work any more.
Because of her age, mom's GP was reluctant to prescribe a BP medication as her high BP never presented at the doctor's. They were afraid that she would develop hypotension. Fast forward, we're now trialing amlodipine 2.5mg daily. Not controlling those spikes was not a good idea. There were consequences. We're still exploring, and will learn more in time.
Re high cholesterol. That needs to be dealt with. It plays into the high BP. I do not know how to explain it but all this stuff is connected.
Back to mom. Her cholesterol started to rise in her 50s. Her GP started her on a low dose statin. This wise move has kept her cardiovascular risks low over the decades, and her arteries largely clear. No TIA, heart attack or stroke yet.
More importantly, as other age-related heart conditions surfaced, her under-control cholesterol and largely clear arteries, has put her in better stead to weather these new conditions including the rising BP.
You mention tests for your circulatory system. Your rising BP and the high cholesterol, these are signals from your circulatory system. Perhaps its time to seriously consider your doctor's advice?
Best wishes.
Very interesting about your mother, ling, I appreciate your message. I think these potential future issues are what are troubling me.... I'm not overweight, so that's in my favour, my BMI is 23. Maybe, because of my age, I should be more receptive of the doctor's advice. My spikes of high bp when stressed have been occuring for many years, in fact about 10 years ago, on a visit to Urgencia (I live in Spain) I was deemed to be having a hypertensive crisis..... As for my cholesterol, most annoyingly, my husband's is perfect and he is very overweight! My brother's is high, too, so I suppose that is what would be called familial high cholesterol. I don't know what my dad's was - he lived to be 90 and took no meds at all. But then, he never went to the doctor! My mum had a whole myriad of issues as she got older, heart, rheumatoid and osteosarthritis..... this growing old business is tough!
Of course u decide. However, don't put it off for too long.
These are not future issues. They are happening right now. The high cholesterol, the spiking BP, these are processes that build up in the body causing damage and wearing your body down, and put you on the path to stroke and heart attack.
I know my mom's GP's worry re the low BP, but after her latest "hypertensive" scare, I finally bit the bullet and started her on the amlodipine. We monitor closely. Better we try and deal with it now than a stroke later on. That will be debilitative. Plus stroke risk increases with age as well, so her risk is doubled.
Ok, enough preaching from me.
Best wishes.
Best wishes to you and your mom, ling. Thank you for your advice, my bp has been spiking quite a lot today so I took a tiny dose of Atenolol....
Thank you very much for your good wishes.
What dose was the atenolol?
How have the readings been after the atenolol?
About the same but my heart rate has slowed down. It's in the early 60s now and steadier. I do get quite a lot of missed beats and thumps and they seem better over the past day. BP is still very up and down, sometimes fine, sometimes up in the yellow or even orange zone on my monitor. I'm just going to take another tiny dose.
I think the atenolol dose is too low, plus not taking it on a regular basis isn't doing its job to keep the BP stable.
Also I'm not sure if atenolol is a first line medication for high BP so under the circumstances might not be suitable?
Is your diet low sodium?
Thanks for your concern, ling. You may well be right but I'm finding that small dose is pulling my pulse rate down into the 50s, so I'm a bit scared to go on the dosage the doctor wants. Yes, my diet is low in sodium., I keep within guidelines, don't add salt to food.
Maybe u can check this out? Atenolol is a beta blockers. Beta blockers work very specifically to lower heart rate. Perhaps a medicine meant for lowering BP, will not have such a big effect on the heart rate, as it will work primarily to lower the BP?
I take a beta blocker for my high heart rate when needed, and it works well for that. It doesn't lower my BP that much.
Re sodium. Getting too little sodium will also cause problems, as I am learning now with my mom.
Interesting! Do you take the beta blocker just when you need it? My heart rate does go into the 90s when I'm anxious so it could be useful for those times. I didn't take my little quarter of a pill tonight, doesn't seem much point. I think I'm going to see if I can get a 24 hour monitor. I keep thinking that I need to find out why my BP fluctuates so much, rather than just treating the numbers with pills. There must be a reason, surely..... thanks for chatting with me ling, much appreciated.
You're welcome : )
I hope it helps to sort things out.
Why does your heart rate go up?
Mine does due to my hyperthyroid Graves when it is in an unstable phase.
Have you had your thyroid tested? Aging can also cause thyroid conditions. Hyperthyroidism can also cause high BP.
Sure, do the BP monitoring. If the fluctuating BP happens daily, the monitoring should capture something.
Some times it's just age. The arteries have started to stiffen so BP starts going up. Perhaps the stage before it begins to be constantly high, it's spiking now and again in that push higher?
Re sodium. If you find you are having to consistently lower sodium and salt as BP spikes more and more, then that's a signal its time to do something because sodium and salt are critical for life, and u cannot cut it to next to nothing, there will be consequences.
What doctors always advise is to go low sodium but never specify the low end of the range which you should not go below or you could become sick as a result of that as well.
Hi ling! I think I get enough salt, we eat lots of veggie soup (I'm pescatarian) and the stock cubes have salt in them, also I LOVE Marmite, have that on toast most days as a snack and that's very salty. And I had forgotten about eggs - I eat 2 boiled eggs for breakfast 2 or 3 times a week, salt is essential with boiled eggs lol. So I think I have it about right for sodium and my recent blood test showed me about mid range. I am hypothyroid due to a hemithyroidectomy 8 years ago but I was startled to see (again on my recent blood test) that I'm almost veering into hyperthyroid territory - usually my TSH is somewhere around 3 to 4 and this time it's .6. Still within range but I did wonder if it's significant. I Googled Atenolol which may well have been a mistake, as of course it brought up worrying stuff e.g. it can lower hdl levels and raise triglycerides, both in my case are really good. It's my ldl that isn't good. So I don't want to carry on with it. Sometimes I think I'll just avoid the doctor's office lol!
Oh dear! I think that's why your BP's spiking. Stock cubes and marmite, there's no way you can be low sodium eating that stuff. They are seriously high in salt. Eating eggs with salt is also a bad idea if your BP is rising.
Might I suggest you overhaul how you cook and eat? But it's a big step, like it was for us when we first went low sodium, so it would be a good idea to talk to a dietitian to get advice on how to start and how to manage the transition.
If you have doubts about what I am saying, try a simple experiment at home. Cut out the stock cubes and marmite and use low sodium alternatives to cook and flavour your food, and don't eat eggs with salt. Try it for one two weeks, and see if it helps with the BP situation.
When my mom started a low sodium diet, her BP returned to normal quite nicely and it bought her another several years without medication.
Hemithyroidectomy. That means half the thyroid was left behind?
With TSH at 0.6, perhaps its time to get FT4 and FT3 tested. FT3 must be tested as well as its the thyroid hormone that affects heart rate.
Re atenolol. At the tiny dose u are taking, its unlikely to cause all that stuff u read about.
Really? Even though my blood test sodium results are OK? Well, I can certainly experiment.... I've actually stopped taking my bp, the last few days and I'm feeling a lot less anxious. Yes, I have half a thyroid. I think you're right about checking my thyroid numbers. Thanks again, Ling xx
My mom on a super low sodium diet, her sodium level tested every 6 months, is always in range. So I don't think dietary salt consumption translates in a one-to-one into one's sodium level. Will need to read up on this one.
However, when mom eats anything with salt or high sodium, we see it almost immediately in the spiking BP readings.
Good idea taking the BP less if it helps rid the anxiety.
Best wishes.
You sound like me...a real sufferer of white coat syndrome.My bp is always much higher in a medical setting and I'm on meds.Anyway the consultant ordered a 24 hour bp check and it was fine.Plenty of gp surgeries have these 24 hour machines too.I keep an eye on my bp at home and my gp is fine with that.
Thanks for your reply, lettingoffsteam. I'm worried the 24 hour monitor will stress me out but I think maybe I have to investigate that.
Well, it's not the best, especially as it goes off at night but you get used to it and it is only 24 hours. My husband reads mine at home as I stress out over it. Definitely take more than one measurement on your home monitor. I was told to ignore the first reading altogether. Anyway it's a common problem so don't worry.
Ignore that first reading altogether. I mean it - ignore it. You have 3 readings close together and they are the ones you should trust. Google ‘white coat syndrome’ . I had a high reading in my doctors surgery. Next check I’m going to refuse to budge unless they give me 3 readings like at home.
Yes, Ukscorpio, I'm sure I have white coat syndrome and if it was always low at home, I wouldn't be concerned. Yesterday was interesting, that just staying calm and taking a few deep breaths brought it down, after the initial high reading. That doesn't always happen but maybe I don't always stay calm lol. I'll experiment a bit more. Thanks very much for your reply.
I have very high readings in my doctors surgery but much lower ones at home. But my doctor wants to double my dose of blood pressure pills because of the high readings in her surgery. The fact that the readings are much lower at home dosen't seem to count with her.
I would ignore the first reading and work off the others. It does depend on your age, but your levels are all controllable with diet. I have removed a few things from my diet like carbohydrates that are refined and sugars generally. Less caffeine too and it has made a huge difference - so that and a bit of gentle walking/exercise and you'll be able to stay off the meds.
Hello Finrinne - I'm yet another poster who says not to be concerned. The website of Blood Pressure UK has lots of helpful information on it, so if you are not really familiar with it, have a read.
Hello Happyrosie, good to get your opinion, I am new to this board and had a read through several similar problems before posting, your advice always seems sound. Glad you think I may be be OK to stay med free.
Hello firinne, I would get a second opinion before taking meds, those numbers you quote seem good to me but I’m. Not a doctor, I’ve been taking bp meds for 3 years, and would love to get off them, side effects are awful, but maybe that’s just my bad tolerance, my advice to you would be to use meds as a last resort, but follow medical advice of course, good luck.
Sleepyhollow, it's so frustrating when the doctor just takes one reading, says it's high and I need to be on meds..... same with my cholesterol. He won't look at the ratios, just the total number. Thanks for your advice - and no-one here has advised me to just 'take the meds'. I think I'm going to like this board, everyone has been very kind.
Get a better profile of the daily variation of your BP. Take a day when you have the time and take your BP every hour or so and see how often you BP spikes. You have "white coat affect" as do I, meaning that you will always have super high BP in the doctors office. What you describe is exactly what I had for years, I too could reduce my BP by taking some very deep breaths before a re-take.If you begin to get consistently high BP consider taking Lisinopril instead of a statin. Lisinopril has practically no side effects and is not so "destructive" as a statin. You can also get a machine for a couple of days from your doctor that will continually measure and record your BP for 24 hours. With that you can see what drives up those spikes - and therefore avoid those circumstances (e.g. scary movies on TV, does it for me!).
I am not sure where you live but in the US we have a mobile service called Lifeline Screening where you can get your arteries checked out for blockage or the beginnings of build up of residual materials - and other things. I am sure they have them outside of the US, or you could ask your doc for a such a scan.
What I do is take my BP and if it is high I take a Lisinopril (12.5MG pill), I then seem to go for about 3 days (at about 125/60) before it creeps up above 135/60 then I take another pill. If I take a pill every day (like the doc says) my BP drops to something so low that I can hardly function (~109/50), I will not drag myself around like that so I only take the pill when I need it - yes I know everyone says your not supposed to do that and do what your doc says but he is not the one trying to get something done whilst dragging around.
Anyway, that is what I do and I too avoid taking BP pills as much as I can.
Oh, that's so helpful, thank you LAHs! I'm going to take your advice and knuckle down to taking my bp as you suggest. I must admit I do shy away from taking it.... but I need to properly face up to what (if anything) is going on. And I'll check out Lisinopril, thank you. My latest bp med (which, as usual, I haven't taken) is Atenolol.... I'm wondering if I can just take that in a stressful situation. I suspect if I take it daily, as my doctor wants me to do, it would make my often quite low bp drop through the floor.
You got me thinking about the difference between Atenolol and Lisinopril. Atenolol is a beta blocker and Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor. I found this very clear and simple explanation of both in this article:
goodrx.com/blog/ace-inhibit...
I think you might find it very helpful.
Here in the UK, certainly at my doctor's surgery, 135/60 would be considered normal. We don't prescribe medication until 150/90
Thank you! Yes, I was told both in the US and wasn't sure which one to believe. Doc said 135/60 was too high and another doc said 140/60 was "a bit high but not too much to worry about." I know which one to believe now.
I was told to take it at 8.00 a.m and 8.00 p.m over a few days and take the average of those days. I then give the GP the result and he’s quite happy with me doing it rather than it being done in the surgery where one reading isn’t particularly representative of your BP generally. Also BP does rise with age too.
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