HIGH BLOD PRESSURE! what to do?

Question

my dad has very high blood pressure of 200, what should he be eating and doing differently to lower it?
He's visited the doctors and is also on medication for it.
thank you

Answer 1

The doctor will have told your father what other measures she/he wishes him to take in addition to the medication. These additional measures may include a low-fat, low-sodium diet with a daily maximum intake for both, a fat-free, sodium-free diet, increased activity/exercise, lifestyle changes and stress management. Exactly what the doctor recommended may depend on whether your father has primary or secondary hypertension. I suggest that your father contact his doctor if he wasn't given recommendations.

You can help your father by running a search for hypertension management, primary and secondary hypertension and learning more about it. Then pass it on to your father or have him read the information for himself. Any changes he chooses to make should be doctor approved first.

Answer 2

If it's consistently 200, he should visit the doctor promptly to consider adding additional blood pressure medications. Sometimes 3-4 medications are required to get good control.

Lifestyle/diet changes are very helpful but they won't be sufficient to control a 200 pt blood pressure by themselves; in addition, the changes take months to have their effect felt and a BP of 200 is best controlled sooner rather than later.

One strategy to consider is to add the additional medications now and to also make the lifestyle/diet changes. Then in 2 months, you can visit the doctor again and see if enough changes have been made to consider withdrawing one or more of the medications.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Quit adding salt to your food immediately, ways to do this are:
Take his food out of the dish before adding salt for everybody else. Or just add table salt at the table, and your father has none. He can have pepper, chilli or anything else that takes his fancy.
Don't fry food in fat, learn to enjoy steamed fish, and low fat chicken. Quit red meat as much as possible, at it has much hidden fat. Fat has twice the calories of starchy foods.
Reduce his calories to loose weight, when his weight drops his blood pressure will decrease.
Is there any stressors in his life? Try to remove any stressors, ie draining people, just get "busy".
Quit coffee, and alcohol.
Try walking for 20 minutes and gradually build up as able to but only after taking his blood pressure medication.
Make a weight loss chart to have a goal and when he meets a goal, have a treat, such as going to a movie.