An urgent message to all my middle-aged friends on GFY
 

...if you haven't checked your blood pressure in over a year, please do so. Three days ago I checked my blood pressure just out of the blue after not doing so in over a year. I felt fine but my readings were SKY HIGH: 210 over 120. I went to the emergency room and they said I could have a stroke any minute with that kind of blood pressure. They put me on some medications, and now two days later I am almost normal blood pressure: 128 over 80.

I don't want any of my GFY friends to have a stroke. Please check your blood pressure even if you feel 100% fine. :)

http://www.myappetiteforlife.com/wp-...3/bp-chart.png

Good advise, bump.

Just checked mine.. i am on the green. :)

thanks for the concern :)

Thanks. Stay healthy guys. :thumbsup

Sort yourself out as soon as possible so as you can get off those meds, they eventually fuck up your insides :2 cents:

if you felt fine w/ 210/120 then you have been hypertensive for a long time and normal pressure values will make you feel weak and sleepy

i cant afford to have blood pressure... :(

Great advise!!! Bump

At what age does one become 'middle-aged'? 45?

Thanks for the advice. This can help someone

I hope you get to feeling better. Research foods to naturally help with blood pressure and don't take aspirin.

Don't stress about anything.

-The Doctor (not really)

last time i checked mine was below avg, took meds and now i am fine.

Good job and great post. After having 3 heart attacks myself with 4 stints it really sucks when your laid up in the hospital.

I would say "middle aged" starts around 35.

good thing you checked

Holy fuck that is high! What are your stats: age / height / weight?

Glad you caught it in time to do something about it.

38 / 5'9" / 185lbs

Probably have cancer from smoking but my blood pressure is always good. :thumbsup

Yeah I went for a health check for a visa application and my blood pressure came in at 240 over 170 :)

Fuck that.. I just want to die..

I run 3 times a week for an hour, i'm glad mine is normal..

Hope you're feeling better soon!

Glad you thought to get checked!

110% ABSOLUTELY true & good advice.
Some of you may know...back in Nov 2011, I had a similar experience...
Ended up in the hospital w/ 260/160 blood pressure...my kidneys were failing {still recovering...}, and it even had swollen my optic nerves...my vision was 'deficient' for nearly 7 months, on a slow, slow recovery as my body settled down.

I was in the hospital for 2 weeks, had two kidney surgeries, and am still on a lot of meds today to control it all...and will always be.

The main thing that I have changed, to keep things better...aside from the meds...is virtually cutting out salt and too much sodium.

Take his, and my advice...check your BP when you can, as often as you can...use the free testing things i pharmacies and places like WalMart.
DO IT...
I had NO idea my BP was so bad...until it was nearly too late!
Had I not found it out the day that I did...I would not be here to be writing this now.

About 2.5 years ago my mother in law was staying with us and hers spiked. a few weeks later mine did. We are both now on meds for it. Good thing for me, is she is the doctor that takes care of me. I take 1 10mg pill every morning and I then walk about 5 miles. In the early after noon I hit the gym for 1.5 hours plus adding in a 1/2 mile walk. to do little things here and there. Over all my BP stays at 117/78 So im pretty happy.

We think it could have been caused by the amount of salt in the water we drink and have been trying to get rid of it. we use bottled water and also filter it to remove a little more.

checking tomorrow. thanks :)

I'd never really thought about that, salt in the water.
My problem was dumping salt on food my whole life, never mind bottles (literally) of A-1 Sauce on practically everything.
{sodium's bad...}

seriously shut the fuck up... your words here can actually kill someone you fucking asshole.

I thought i could just change things up, less stress in my life, major changes with the diet. No matter how extreme i did it the only single outcome was getting it down 5% tops. I wasn't overweight, i just finished running my first marathon, training for my next season for triathlons and was in the best shape of my life unbeknownst to me that my bp was killing me silently. After about 3 months of fighting it to get off the meds, as you say, it just stayed high and it would have killed me soon. A week after taking the medication (which has ZERO side effects) my bp was optimal.

If your blood pressure is a little high? You can do things in your life to help, no doubt. Having to take medication EVERY day is not convenient and I'm the last person who would be content with that but believe me, in this case, NOTHING else will fix it. You do not feel anything when it is high, you would feel fine right up to the minute it kills you.

This is bullshit, nobody 'feels' high blood pressure ever... You are referring to blood sugars.

I was running 10k every day except sundays where i ran 20 when I got diagnosed. Zero relevance trust me.

It's not the salt you add to your food, it would be impossible for you to add as much salt to whatever you cooked compared to what is in regular processed foods. An example, if you ever tried a mcdonalds cheeseburger, try it again without the ketchup. The salt is so overpowering you wouldn't be able to finish it. The sugar in the ketchup hides the over-salting in the meat (which is also why that shit is addictive mind you). So if anything eat less of those, use salt when you cook and you will be fine.

Generally it has more to do with your potassium balance rather than salt intake anyway. Salt is in anything we consume so avoiding it makes about as much sense as avoiding oxygen. As long as your potassium levels are good then you don't have to worry about it as much anyway, again as long as you don't kill it with too much processed foods.

I went to the Dr last Monday over something entirely different, I have a knot on my hand that wasn't going away and he decided to give me a full workup - xrays - blood work and all of it. I already knew I had Diabetes and a Mitral Valve Regurgitation and what ended up was a LOT more than I was ready for:

I was not called and advised to make another appt, I was summoned back in ASAP and was told to come there or head to the hospital, it was pretty bad and I'd better move NOW.

I have a dangerously low performing Thyroid that is attacking my body - and if not seen when I was, I would have been dead inside of 6 months.

Menopause - Liver abnormalities - Diabetes all out of whack (NOT from my diet, that's perfect, but from stress and that Thyroid thing) - Arthritis (both Rheumatoid and Osteo - sp?) - Bipolar/Anxiety/PTSD

The only thing that was right was my Blood Pressure and that was perfect.

I went from one pill a day for my Diabetes to 6 pills a day for literally just about every organ I have in my body.... I have ONE month to get it going in the right direction or he's gonna have a fit.

So yeah, feeling fine doesn't always mean feeling fine - just sometimes it's become so normal that we THINK we are fine. lol

My sister had 200/100 BP due to taking the b/c pill. She had no clue till she was at the dr for another reason. She came off the pill and it went down to normal BP range.

Salt in the water can be from traditional water softeners or just a slightly saline water condition. A reverse osmosis system can typically tackle that. Or drinking bottled water in lieu.

wow, that was really high. Good thing you happened to check it that day.
I have my husband on beta blockers as well because about 2 years ago his BP started spiking. He lost about 40 lbs after that and goes to the gym 5 days a week, so he's in great shape and his BP is normal, but we want to play it safe and he'll stay on meds for another year.