I'm no longer hypertensive!!

I developed hypertension in my mid-20's. I was not overweight, not a smoker and always ate pretty well. I did work a high stress job and tend to be really high strung, but other than that I could see no reason why I should have high blood pressure. Eventually I decided I didn't want to risk damage to my kidneys, heart or eyes so I discussed it with my doctor. I was on medication on and off for a couple years, but they all seemed to have one or two bothersome side effects, and I really didn't like the idea of being on medication for the rest of my life at such a young age.

I got a blood pressure monitor and researched a bunch of supplements and started to change my diet. It took a while to see any changes but something was happening. It took a better part of a year but I went from being hypertensive to just pre-hypertensive (avg 160/95 to avg 135/85).

I still wasn't happy with being pre-hypertensive though. I tried to pinpoint what exactly I was doing that was working. I had been eating a very low sodium diet, but some days I had low sodium and still had higher BP, and other days I might have gone overboard on sodium, but my BP was lower that day. It wasn't until I started looking at potassium in relation to sodium that I saw another change. As long as my potassium was at least 2-3 times my sodium my BP was normal or not too far from it. As long as I had enough potassium, sodium didn't have much of an effect.

Also I found that of all the supplements I tried, the only one that really did anything at all was magnesium. My BP wasn't normal all the time. I'd still occasionally see a 140/90 when I got home from work, but it was usually always normal in the mornings.

I added in high intensity cardio 3-4 times a week for the past 12 weeks. It's been 4 weeks since I've gotten a reading over 122/76, even when I get home from work.

I don't know how or why this worked. I'm not advocating that people don't take BP meds. But something can be said for diet changes and exercise. Hypertension can be caused by many different things and can do a lot of damage if not controlled.

I'm not saying that at sometime in my life I won't need BP meds again. I just didn't want that time to be now.