high bood pressure?

Question

i am 28 and have been told i have high blood pressure, the nurse says mine should be around 130/80 howeva mine is closer to 160/120, i am currently wearing a 24hr monitor which is very uncomfortable, i would like sum suggestion, if any1 has any tried and tested methods of reducing it, i dont smoke, have a bad diet or drink that often and i do try to exercise as much as i can??????

i am not over weight im 5ft 4" and i weigh 8st 5lb, i dont drink alot of tea or coffee, and all my vegetables are steamed, i never add salt 2 anything i eat because i cant stand the taste of it, will an eye on the potassium levels tho so thanks if u have suggested that

the monitor was given 2 me by the nurse at my doctors surgery it was a battery operated 1 so it took it automaticaly every 15 mins,i get the results next week. i will also watch my sodium intake thanks guys uve all been great

Answer 1

Now there's a familiar story, right down to the 160/120. I was unfortunate enough to know exactly how high that is. I started to go grey the very next day. Though I smoked and drink and live a sedentary lifestyle which made me to blame.

Some people are just predisposed to high BP. People of Celtic descent seem to be most at risk I understand. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it.
It's good that it got spotted. They'll sort it one way or another and it needn't effect you health at all. If it hadn't been spotted you'd probably have 20 years knocked of your life. Hypertension is a silent killer.

Take time to relax. Stress is what does for people.

What'll happen is they'll monitor you over a few months to see if it's a fluke. The 24hr BP monitor is to see if you suffer from "white coat syndrome". My BP shoots up 10points just at the thought of the Doctor taking it. 20 if he's about to stick a needle in my arm to do a blood test in the same appointment.

If it remains high you'll be given something to bring it down.
At 28 you ought to be started on an ACE inhibitor, unless you're of Afro-carribean descent. For some reason they don't work on this ethnic group. If that's the case you'll be put on a calcium channel blocker (CCB) if your GP knows their stuff.
CCBs expand the blood vessels at the extremities to give somewhere for the blood to go reducing the work on your heart. Very effective, Amlodipine is the most common but it can make your feet and ankles swell a bit. All that blood has to go somewhere and that's gravity for you.
Other BP treatments are Beta blockers. These work very well and really relax you too but they can make you want to go to sleep by 2pm. They did me and I couldn't exercise because it reduces how hard the heart pumps and slows it down too.
Alpha blockers tend not to be used much these days. I forget how they work.
Angiotensin2ReceptorAntagonists (or ACE2s) work in a similar method to ACE Inhibitors but are very expensive. Both inhibit Angiotensin which is a blood vessel constrictor but they do it by different methods. Expanding the blood vessels makes BP go down

They're new medicines but don't have the long term clinical evidence of ACE-Inhibs. The only real advantage of them (DIOVAN is an ACE2) is they don't have any real side effects. Some people find ACE Inhibs make them cough. (Bradykinin builds up in the lungs where it's created. Bradykinin is the bodys natural blood vessel dilator but it makes you cough for some reason).
Diuretics work by reducing the amount of blood you have (they make you wee more)

If your BP remains that high you'll dfinitely be given some sort of tablet. With it that high, you may find they need to give you a second type to take after a few months as one may not be enough.

Others have mentiond reducing salt from the diet. I've heard conflicting views from pharmacists on this. You are not recommended to eat more than 6g a day. The food companies are weasles and have go wise to this and usually don't put salt on the packs. They put sodium instead. However, salt is sodium chloride and chlorine has twice the mass of sodium. That means you need to multiply the sodium content by 3 to get the salt content. It's a lot harder to keep under 6g than you think if you eat any sort of processed food.
Stock cubes contain tons of salt. Watch them.

Don't worry about it, it's best to find out now before anything has been damaged.

If like most people, you'd found out in 15 years time irrevocable damage would have been done to you kidneys, heart, arteries and eyes by then.

That should make you feel better. Hope you don't go grey...or bald

Answer 2

I am 39 and have been controlling mine with diet (no meds) for the last two years.

Get in the habit of reading labels. If the sodium is high (more than 150ml), you'll know to avoid it.

Minimize your caffeine intake.

Foods you should avoid are anything canned or frozen, these contain huge amounts of sodium. Anything pickled, aged cheeses, cured meats, such as salami, pepperoni etc. Stop adding salt to your food.

I added foods rich in potassium. Bananas, strawberries and orange juice etc. Potassium has a lowering effect on BP.

Get moderate exercise. Walking for twenty minutes a day is enough.

I started out at 160/100. I am now consistant at 117/70. Good luck to you.

Answer 3

Reduce your stress level, cut back or eliminate on caffeine intake, reduce your intake of sodium (many products have sodium in them when you would expect it not to be, like soda), and if you consume those lovely energy drinks, stop, and exercise..
Find a relaxing hobby, and get this under control now before you get into your late 30s.
High blood pressure is bad for you, and the medicines they give you are that good for you as well.

Answer 4

Regular (strenuous) exercise can indeed lower blood pressure.Your kidneys also have a part to play in controlling blood pressure.It could be that there is a narrowing of a blood vessel in the kidneys which makes the body think the pressure is lower than it is,the body then increases the pressure to try to compensate.You might have to go for a scan/test on your kidneys.There are drugs that will lower BP,starting with diuretics and maybe to blockers.
I had hypertension but it has improved greatly with exercise and
diuretics(Bendroflumethiazide).Don't .....don't worry,it's treatable.

Answer 5

Cut salt out completely you get all you need naturally in your food,try to include more fresh salad/vegetables in your diet ,celery can help lower your blood pressure along with bananas, any veg that contains potassium will help you, stress can be a major factor in B.P. so anything you can do to reduce it the better.
I have high B.P.and if i even walk into the docs up and up it go's maybe it's the same for you, call into your library and go to the medical section i found loads of helpful books there.

Answer 6

If you don't have a correctible cause of your hypertension (unusual, but that's the reason for having a lot of tests when you're initially diagnosed) then your doctor's going to give you the normal counselling about sodium intake, etc., but if you're consistently running 120 diastolics, it's a pretty good bet you're looking at having to take 2 to 4 drugs every day to maintain a normal blood pressure. Sorry.

Answer 7

My blood pressure was high when I was young. I was put on many different types of blood pressure medication with no good results until I was put on ACE inhibitors. ACE is a chemical put out by your kidneys that causes your blood vessels to constrict, raising your blood pressure.
Now my blood pressure is always about 120/70 or so, depending on what time of day you check it. My ACE inhibiting drug is Diovan.
The only bad side effect I had is that occaisonally you get a dry cough. Taking a baby aspirin a day helps to make the cough go away, though and is even good for preventing heart attacks.

Answer 8

If you have cut back on caffiene and sodium, and have limited your stress at home and work, you may have to go on a medication such as toporol or another beta blocker. These drugs are very effective and I see younger people on it all the time.

An occasional alcoholic drink, especially a glass of red wine with dinner can help a little to lower your BP, but you can't over do it or it leads to a lot of other problems.

Answer 9

The most common cause for hypertension in youth is obesity. If you are obese, lose weight, if you want to live a long time. However, if you are not obese, and if you don't smoke, don't eat wrong, do drink right, and do exercise, then probably you should get on meds, which you may have to take for the rest of your life. Some people just have essential hypertension not treatable by non-drug means.

The odds are that you are, in fact, obese, so do something about it.

Answer 10

my mum has it real bad, i watched a prgramme the other month where people with such problems where put on a diet that neanderthol man ate (not saure of the spelling sorry) and within something like two weeks there was this guy who went from almost being a certain for diebetes to being really low risk....think it was the same for blood pressure, the programme was on bbc with the news presenter Fiona bruce, it wasnt long ago and i think the series is still running so check the website out, hope this helps!???!?