High Blood Pressure.

[annunaki]

Dropping the Pressure

Donate some blood frequently, maybe if you're a "Quart Low" it might help.

[jovani]

High blood pressure

What is the brand of this wrist mount digital blood presure monitor? I am planning on getting one, but have no idea, how they work.

[gsmittle]

I agree -- lose weight, exercise, and if it's still high, take your meds. Possible consequences: heart attack, stroke.

FYI, the average # of meds for people with high blood pressure in their 50's is 4. Many do better with less.

+1 on what Paul says. HBP runs in my family--I've been on meds since age 32. Someday I'll try the lose weight and exercise method...

The worst thing about a stroke is it may not kill you, but leave you totally incapacitated. I hear a heart attack hurts, too.

Get it under control and enjoy your life--most of us don't even realize how crappy we feel until the BP is better.

g.

[Ed62]

I never knew I had hypertension. Had a stroke at age 57, and I found out I had high BP. Now I'm 70. I quit smoking about 1963, and quit drinking in 1979, so neither was a concern. I've been on lisinopril for quite some time, and my BP is well controlled.

The stroke is the only thing I've had to deal with, so I consider myself very fortunate, and in good health. Full recovery from the stroke took a few months.

Ed

[moc]

What is the brand of this wrist mount digital blood presure monitor? I am planning on getting one, but have no idea, how they work.

If you buy any of the automatic home BP monitors, I would strongly encourage you to bring it to your doctor's office on your next visit. Check the doctor's reading of your BP vs. your machine's at the same time.

I know of cases where people blame their high BP on "white coat syndrome" based on normal home readings when in actuality the home readings are just plain wrong.

You don't want to learn that lesson the hard way.

And if we all just got some exercise and watched our diets/weight, we'd put the pharmaceutical companies out of business.

*moc

[TheRic]

I have high BP - Hypertension, runs in the family. First thing the doc told me was to cut back on my salt, had to chuckle when he did. He ask why the chuckle told him I don't salt anything other than my sidewalk.

There are many foods I don't eat because they taste too salty. I like my French fries, potato chips, etc. with out salt. Wife on the other hand salts everything before she even tastes it.

[ragswl4]

I never knew I had hypertension. Had a stroke at age 57, and I found out I had high BP. Now I'm 70. I quit smoking about 1963, and quit drinking in 1979, so neither was a concern. I've been on lisinopril for quite some time, and my BP is well controlled.

The stroke is the only thing I've had to deal with, so I consider myself very fortunate, and in good health. Full recovery from the stroke took a few months.

Ed

Same med I take and also Toprol. Low blood pressure until I had a heart attack in 2004 then went up to 170/120. Now its 118/70. I ocassionally feel light headed and I think its due to normal blood pressure without meds so when I take the meds sometimes my pressure is too low. I continue to have the clogs in the arteries and it will probably get me one of these days. Going through another series of tests to see how bad it is now.

[Alex Franke]

I have so-called "white coat hypertension." When ever I go to the doctor, by BP goes through the roof -- I get this sort of anxious "fuzzy" feeling -- sometimes a little light-headed, and definitely not normal.

They sent me home for 24 hours with a monitor once and it was the worst day of my life. I went home for lunch and took my toddler out to the sand box to play -- just as he stepped in, I noticed a huge snake about a foot away from him... scared the living daylights out of me! Hardly slept a wink that night, too.

But my home monitor reads normal to elevated -- sometimes high, but not nearly as high as when I'm at the doctor's office. I even took it in to calibrate it against the physicians sphygmomanometer...

I got an Omron monitor -- I think it was about $100. I test twice a day for a week or so at a time.

[MikeMcCoy]

I was curious about the home monitors and saw that Amazon has the Omron HEM-780 for $62.03 shipped with a $10 promotional coupon.