Anyone else have high blood pressure??? Help!

kylakesgal
kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I'm 45 and about 30 lbs overweight. I joined mfp about a month ago and have had pretty good success so far. The thing I'm concerned with is my sodium intake as I've had high blood pressure issues for several years now and since I'm now tracking my sodium, I can see why. My sodium is usually quite high everyday and that is something I'm going to have to continue to work on. I'm not taking any type of medication for high blood pressure even though my bp is in the pre- hypertension area. I'm hoping to alleviate my issues with bp through diet and exercise. I do exercise everyday for at least 30 mins. Anyone else out there with these type of issues that could give me some helpful hints? I'm avoiding processed foods and starting to buy everything in low sodium if it's available. Any types of food that are good for reducing bp? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to listen:)

Replies

  • balfonso
    balfonso Posts: 370 Member
    Yes, I suffer from hypertension and take blood pressure meds. Recently, my doc told me to stop taking the tablets, as I was getting some side effects ie. urticaria, so I'm switching to another type. This site is excellent :)

    I also try not to eat too much processed foods and mainly cook meals from scratch. But it IS difficult as sodium is in most things.
    Even though I'm exercising and eating healthy, my BP is not lowering in my case because I suffer from nephrotic syndrome.
  • nisijam5
    nisijam5 Posts: 9,964 Member
    I don't have high BP. However, you are correct with the weight loss, sodium and exercise...

    Once you start to exercise, you will see the BP start to come down. Do cardiovascular exercises to work out your heart muscles

    Also, you should change your sodium to the new guidelines to 1500mg instead of the 2500 that MFP gives you.

    Lastly, the weight loss of 30 lbs will alleviate the workload on the heart
  • lots2live4
    lots2live4 Posts: 107 Member
    I would also love to know of any foods to help reduce BP. My last check up the doc said mine was slightly elevated again, this was the third doctor visit she said that so she prescribe me some meds. I haven't taken them, I'm hoping the same thing to reduce my BP through eating healthy and exercise.
  • nisijam5
    nisijam5 Posts: 9,964 Member
    I haven't taken them, I'm hoping the same thing to reduce my BP through eating healthy and exercise.

    You should take your prescribed meds...you don't feel high BP which is why it is so dangerous....there's a reason they call it the silent killer
  • dcdc13
    dcdc13 Posts: 86
    Hi.

    High Blood Pressure is not something you want to take lightly. I am 31yrs old and have had it for nearly 11 years and been on medication. I've lost 25lbs, but noticed that when I was much lighter I still had to take BP medicine, I've realized it's all the type of foods that I put in my mouth. First I would suggest you see your primary care doctor, to get you on some medicine until it's controlled. When you excerise your BP raises slightly too. As far as food, the most important thing to remember is you are what you eat. My suggestion is to eat from the low glycemic index. Use Ms. Dash seasoning or Sea Salt not table salt, or Kosher. Eat food that is grown from the grown or grass fed. I noticed when I stopped eating at restaurants I could still afford higher quality food and buy cage free, organic, grass fed etc. Take Chia Seeds in tbls in the morning and 2 for lunch. You can also get the book of Dash Diet Plan. It's for people w/ Hypertension, High Blood Pressure. Since starting my diet and consuming foods from the low glycemic index, I have gotten off of 1 one of my BP medicines. I feel fantastic even though I'm still overweight. Be sure to consume a lot of water. Stay away from Crystal Light, stuff like that. I hope that helps.

    Char
  • Edestiny7
    Edestiny7 Posts: 730 Member
    I have to consume limited sodium because of multiple kidney stones. Like you, I try to avoid processed foods. I also rarely eat out. My sodium limit is 1500 mg. and there are days that I only get 500 mg., so my strategy is working. I too buy everything in low sodium or no sodium if possible. Unsalted almonds, Eden Foods No Salt Black Beans, halving or eliminating salt in recipes. I saw the other day that there is a product called 'NoSalt' that is some sort of substitute. I do not know much about it though. I had never put salt on my food in my life because my grandparents had high blood pressure, so was shocked when I saw how much sodium is in EVERYTHING convenient to eat!

    Check out the American Heart Association's website. They have a lot of tips. I have read that seasoning with herbs instead of salt helps with flavor.

    I would also like to mention that I did have high blood pressure once, and it was because of the birth control pills I was taking to control endometriosis. Once I stopped the pills, I no longer had high blood pressure.

    Good luck! :flowerforyou:
  • JulieBoBoo
    JulieBoBoo Posts: 642
    I have high blood pressure and have managed through weight loss to halve my medication (YAY!). I stay under my sodium levels most of the time (not yesterday but most of the time). Feel free to go through my diary for ideas. It should be open.
  • nisijam5
    nisijam5 Posts: 9,964 Member
    One more thing. I had a doctor in the hospital prescribe fish oil as this pt had allergies to cholesterol medications. I believe it balances out the ratio of bad cholesterol and good cholesterol. Not BP related, but good information
  • jamie78
    jamie78 Posts: 514 Member
    Hi everyone, I'm 45 and about 30 lbs overweight. I joined mfp about a month ago and have had pretty good success so far. The thing I'm concerned with is my sodium intake as I've had high blood pressure issues for several years now and since I'm now tracking my sodium, I can see why. My sodium is usually quite high everyday and that is something I'm going to have to continue to work on. I'm not taking any type of medication for high blood pressure even though my bp is in the pre- hypertension area. I'm hoping to alleviate my issues with bp through diet and exercise. I do exercise everyday for at least 30 mins. Anyone else out there with these type of issues that could give me some helpful hints? I'm avoiding processed foods and starting to buy everything in low sodium if it's available. Any types of food that are good for reducing bp? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to listen:)

    Food high in potassium and magnesium are great for that. My husband takes meds for it and we have decreased his sodium intake and upped his pot, and mag. He is doing great now! Hopefully soon will be able to get off the meds! Best of luck to you.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    Look into the connection between potassium and sodium. Low potassium numbers an also cause high BP. High potassium numbers can help with high sodium numbers. Unfortunately not all nutrition labels show potassium.
  • kylakesgal
    kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
    I do drink lots of water and hardly ever eat out because of the high sodium in restaurants. I cook nearly all my food, usually bake or grill my eat, don't eat fried foods, take vitamins and supplements. I also take a grape extract that is supposed to help reduce it. Both of my grandmothers had high bp and one had several strokes due to it but they were both overweight that is why losing weight is so important to me. I have to get healthy again. I agree I need to change the sodium intake in my diary and if you view my diary you will see that I'm not doing so well with keeping it down! I tried taking a med several yrs ago. It may have been too strong for me because I felt horrible when taking it.
  • nisijam5
    nisijam5 Posts: 9,964 Member
    Food high in potassium and magnesium are great for that. My husband takes meds for it and we have decreased his sodium intake and upped his pot, and mag. He is doing great now! Hopefully soon will be able to get off the meds! Best of luck to you.

    Mg helps you absorb K...but, you need to supplement K with caution since it is not fat soluble and stored in the body. So, if you had any kidney insufficiency you should not take without MD approval. Too high of K can send your heart into an arrhythmia. This is especially true of dialysis patients.
  • RoadDog
    RoadDog Posts: 2,946 Member
    Cut my meds in half about a year ago. Cut them in half again about 3 months ago. Hope to eliminate them altogether by this summer.
  • barker737
    barker737 Posts: 14
    I would definitely go see a doctor. I am on blood pressure medication as well. The diet change and weight loss will help with the blood pressure, my doctor has told me that once I lose the weight I will most likely be able to come off of the meds, but until that happens I take the pill. I just wouldn't take the chance of waiting and have something happen in the meantime.
  • nisijam5
    nisijam5 Posts: 9,964 Member
    Look into the connection between potassium and sodium. Low potassium numbers an also cause high BP. High potassium numbers can help with high sodium numbers. Unfortunately not all nutrition labels show potassium.

    I have not seen the correlation between the regarding BP....what sources do you have?
  • seniorfaye
    seniorfaye Posts: 295 Member
    At the last checkup I went for my bp was up a little and I've been on medication for yrs. The dr. said he could put me on another pill, but if I would lose 10-15 lbs and start walking every day he thought that would take care of it. I took my bp this morning a few minutes after exercising and it was 108 /64 so it was good. I've already lost 13 1/2 lbs. So, I'm hoping this is going to work for me.
  • ShellyMacchi
    ShellyMacchi Posts: 975 Member
    high blood pressure here as well... and for sure, since i started tracking sodium here i found out just how much sodium i was really gettingin hidden foods!
    i was appalled at how much i found in my faves like breads and salsa and sauerkraut and cottage cheese!!!

    i reduced my goal to 1500mg

    since then i have searched for, an found, low sodium versions of many of my faves, and if i can't find them i make them, (like cooking chickpeas from dry instead of canned versions if i can't find no sodium added versions), except i cannot find a fix for cheeses like cheddars etc.. so i just make sure to work around that in rest of my daily meal plan.

    i even make my own pizzas! *L*
    no salt added tomato sauce, lowest sodium pita i can find *L*.. butterball low sodium turkey pepperoni and just a tiny sprinkle of parmesan and omgods... is delicious! and the whole individual pizza is less sodium than one slice of any i have found frozen or from pizzerias.

    i go without nothing *L* i just find a way to juggle stuff and make it work if i really want it *S*

    only thing i REALLY have done is stop eating out at restaurants hardly ever now.... the sodium in restaurant meals is literally unbelievable scary and usually just not worth it to me anymore
  • SaraTonin
    SaraTonin Posts: 551 Member
    Agreed on potassium! My nutrition professor recommended eating bananas on days when you accidentally go over on salt. It helps counteract some of the effects.

    And since you were asking for a list of foods...

    - ALL fruits and vegetables (don't salt them, obviously, but opt for seasonings) - here are some suggestions:
    Veggies: Parsley, Celery , Spinach, Green Cabbage, Broccoli, Carrots, Beets, Tomatoes, Garlic, Asparagus.
    Fruits: Bananas, Kiwis, Strawberries, Apricots, Passion Fruit

    - Use garlic powder, not garlic salt (good advice for everyone)

    - My mom eats unsalted raw almonds as they have some vasodilator properties (opens your blood vessels).

    - And really, anything to reduce cholesterol will help you as well, since it lowers the amount of gunk in your blood vessels. This means replacing foods with saturated fats with mono and poly unsaturated fats, as well as opting for Omega 3 and 6. This will lower your cholesterol and triglycerides to help out your heart.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,338 Member
    At the last checkup I went for my bp was up a little and I've been on medication for yrs. The dr. said he could put me on another pill, but if I would lose 10-15 lbs and start walking every day he thought that would take care of it. I took my bp this morning a few minutes after exercising and it was 108 /64 so it was good. I've already lost 13 1/2 lbs. So, I'm hoping this is going to work for me.

    Just a note, don't take your bp just after exercise. The exercise will affect the reading. I was told this by several of the doctors I have had to deal with after I had a stroke last January. They said wait at least an hour before taking it.

    I have not read the whole of this thread yet, but to the original poster, check your food diary since you are tracking sodium, and see what it high in sodium and look at ways to change that. It will probably require cooking much of your own food as pretty much anything pre-made (including many breads) is full of sodium. Also beware of reduced salt stuff. That doesn't mean that the sodium levels are really that much better. For example a reduced salt soup may mean going down from 1000mg per serving to 600mg. The thing is that is still too much since a serving is only part of a can, and most people eat a larger serving than the suggested one. I now make my own broth and don't add any salt at all. Cook my own meat for sandwiches and don't add salt so the sodium is only what is naturally occurring. I make my own tomato sauce again with no salt. Finally, using herbs and spices helps a lot. I now find I don't enjoy the flavor of many foods with the amount of salt used to cook them.

    Oh, another big offender sodium wise is cheese. Around here there are no reduced sodium cheeses, I wish there was because I do like cheese.
  • kylakesgal
    kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
    Thanks so much for all the great advice. I think I may try just taking half a tablet of my bp meds and see how I feel with that. Thanks for the food list Sara:) I'm not salting anything these days but I"m in awe of the sodium in foods. I thought cottage cheese was healthy until I logged it and the sodium is outrageous!! Fast food is the worst! No wonder people are having heart attacks and strokes at an early age anymore. Thanks again guys and have a great weekend:)
  • seniorfaye
    seniorfaye Posts: 295 Member
    hpsnickers there was a nutritionist on a morning tv show the other day that was saying to up your potassium to help with the sodium. I thought that was a really good idea. I changed my settings to see how much potassium I was getting. I need a list of all the foods with that in it.
  • PrairieRoseNE
    PrairieRoseNE Posts: 265 Member
    You've received some great advice here already!
    My suggestion is to rinse anything that you eat that comes from a can, if possible. I drain & rinse all canned veggies I use. I try to use fresh veggies but it isn't always possible. Also, be careful of foods labeled lo-fat! Many lo-fat versions have more sodium than the full-fat foods. I'm not saying all lo-fat foods are bad - just be sure to read the label OK?? Sometimes the trade off of fat vs sodium isn't worth eating the lo-fat version.
    Also check the labels on everything you buy - dairy products, frozen meat - esp. chicken! Anything from the deli counter you should check labels.

    Eating bananas for the potassium is a good idea. And if you're trying to lose weight and you love low calorie frozen snacks - try slicing bananas into some pineapple or lemon juice and then laying out the "marinated" banana slices on a saran wrapped cookie sheet. (The juice keeps the bananas from turning dark!!) Freeze the fruit until solid and then transfer to a freezer safe zip lock bag. I love snacking on frozen banana slices - they also work great in fresh made fruit smoothies!! Also, frozen pineapple chunks are great snack items - When my family is eating ice cream - I snack on a bowl of frozen fruit. Other choices are frozen cantelope & honeydew cubes, green or red seedless grapes - just about anything!!
  • kylakesgal
    kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
    Faye, i usually eat one banana a day but not sure if that is enough. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust my sodium intake but haven't been able to. Anyone know how to do that?
  • callipygianchronicle
    callipygianchronicle Posts: 811 Member
    Faye, i usually eat one banana a day but not sure if that is enough. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust my sodium intake but haven't been able to. Anyone know how to do that?

    Home > Settings > Goals > Change Goals > Custom
  • kylakesgal
    kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
    Thanks Yolanda.....I got it reset:)
  • ceejay000
    ceejay000 Posts: 402 Member
    Thanks so much for all the great advice. I think I may try just taking half a tablet of my bp meds and see how I feel with that. Thanks for the food list Sara:) I'm not salting anything these days but I"m in awe of the sodium in foods. I thought cottage cheese was healthy until I logged it and the sodium is outrageous!! Fast food is the worst! No wonder people are having heart attacks and strokes at an early age anymore. Thanks again guys and have a great weekend:)

    If you don't mind my asking, what BP med are you taking? There are a lot of meds out there with large side effect profiles, and a lot of meds with much smaller side effect profiles, and drugs in both categories work well and shouldn't be expensive.

    One other thing - I will never argue against diet and exercise as a way to improve your health and to try to reduce your blood pressure/cholesterol/blood glucose, etc. BUT some people are just genetically prone to have these problems even if they are otherwise perfectly healthy and at a good weight. I just wanted to point that out because while eating well and exercising are always a good thing, they can't necessarily cure all of these "lifestyle" related diseases. There are still going to be people who need to take blood pressure lowering drugs, cholesterol lowering drugs, etc. You pointed out that you have many family members who have had high blood pressure and/or strokes, so you might be one of those people who just can't avoid a blood pressure medication. The reason I asked about your medication is that you said you don't feel well while you're taking it, and if you talk to your doctor s/he might be willing to switch to one with fewer adverse effects that works just as well. Just something to think about.
  • kylakesgal
    kylakesgal Posts: 952 Member
    Thanks ceejay, I don't remember what the drug was called. I only took it a couple of times and i felt like I had been run over with a truck! I'm at work now but I'll check and get back with you on the name. I may need to see about getting something with a lower dosage. I would prefer to lower it with diet and exercise but that might not work for me.
  • balfonso
    balfonso Posts: 370 Member

    One other thing - I will never argue against diet and exercise as a way to improve your health and to try to reduce your blood pressure/cholesterol/blood glucose, etc. BUT some people are just genetically prone to have these problems even if they are otherwise perfectly healthy and at a good weight. I just wanted to point that out because while eating well and exercising are always a good thing, they can't necessarily cure all of these "lifestyle" related diseases. There are still going to be people who need to take blood pressure lowering drugs, cholesterol lowering drugs, etc. You pointed out that you have many family members who have had high blood pressure and/or strokes, so you might be one of those people who just can't avoid a blood pressure medication. The reason I asked about your medication is that you said you don't feel well while you're taking it, and if you talk to your doctor s/he might be willing to switch to one with fewer adverse effects that works just as well. Just something to think about.



    This is true. I've never been overweight, and have a moderately active lifestyle, and no matter how healthy I eat, my high blood pressure will not go down unless I keep taking my BP meds. Besides the reason for my high BP partly caused by my kidney issues, it DOES also run in my family. My parents has it, my grandfather had it. So yes, I agree, BP can also be genetic.

    But definitely speak to your doctor to put you on a different type of BP meds if you're not happy with the one you were on before.

    I have been on three different ones for the last 22 years. When I was young, they put me on Dipyridamole then in my late teens I was put on something else but I can't remember the name of it because it gave me side effects (allergic reaction), and the last 4 years they put me Varsatan but I've stopped that because again, I developed an allergic reaction to it.
    So I'm transitioning to a new drug in a few days. Not sure what it's called yet.
  • koosdel
    koosdel Posts: 3,317 Member
    I dropped 70 pounds of flab, gained 20 pounds of muscle and stopped drinking soft drinks. Took a looong time, but I'm fine now.
  • LG61820
    LG61820 Posts: 372 Member
    I was highly resistant about starting bp med and am constantly thinking about trying to get off. I did stop taking for awhile, but to keep the number down I had to reduce my sodium to a level so low I could not maintain it on a daily basis so I went back to the med.

    I am in a healthy weight range, I quit smoking, I exercise daily. I asked the doctor what gives with the high bp? He said, thank your parents for that.

    I tried three different medicines, found one that works and has no side effects that I'm aware of. I'd suggest working with your doctor for a different med if you can't reduce your bp by diet alone. I really don't like taking medicine, but the alternative of a stroke is something I like even less!
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