Normal Blood Pressure

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mstarks01
mstarks01 Posts: 109 Member
in Motivation and Support
I went to the doctor today and just wanted to share a small victory. For the first time in a long time, I have normal blood pressure! This is very significant for me as it has been high for quite some time. When the doc suggested a statin before, I said enough is enough and had to do something about my health. It's now starting to pay off and I am optimistic about the days ahead. :smiley:

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  • chelny
    chelny Posts: 179 Member
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    Great news!
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,574 Member
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    That's awesome, congratulations!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Hooray! I also was able to get my blood pressure to "normal" by counting calories and losing weight.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    That's awesome! Especially so since they actually lowered the threshold for what's considered high blood pressure somewhat recently.
  • cbstewart88
    cbstewart88 Posts: 453 Member
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    Congratulations!! Great news!! It's always a huge plus when you can stay off those meds!! :)
  • fesimo34197
    fesimo34197 Posts: 94 Member
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    That’s amazing! Well done
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
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    That's fantastic!
  • etolv
    etolv Posts: 48 Member
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    Great job. I'm working on lowering my blood pressure, too. I've been losing weight and watching sodium in my daily meals and snacks. Can you talk a little more about what you have done to lower your blood pressure?
  • GummiMundi
    GummiMundi Posts: 396 Member
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    mstarks01 wrote: »
    I went to the doctor today and just wanted to share a small victory. For the first time in a long time, I have normal blood pressure! This is very significant for me as it has been high for quite some time. When the doc suggested a statin before, I said enough is enough and had to do something about my health. It's now starting to pay off and I am optimistic about the days ahead. :smiley:

    Excellent news, congratulations! :)
    High BP was the kick in the butt that I needed to start this weight loss journey, so this victory of yours strengthens my hope that it can be done. :)
  • mstarks01
    mstarks01 Posts: 109 Member
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    etolv wrote: »
    Great job. I'm working on lowering my blood pressure, too. I've been losing weight and watching sodium in my daily meals and snacks. Can you talk a little more about what you have done to lower your blood pressure?

    The short answer of course is diet and exercise. :smile:

    This journey oddly started with snoring. My wife got tired of me snoring her awake, so I went to the doc to see if there was anything that could be done about it.

    They ran blood work and it showed some nutrient deficiencies in areas like vitamin D, magnesium and zinc, which are actually pretty common.

    But the really concerning stuff was the high blood pressure and cholesterol. I have never been obese, but was in the overweight category. In my mind, I justified it by saying I had more muscle mass than average, but that is no longer true. I'm not 20 anymore, so I had to be honest with myself that I was overfat.

    I started by focusing on improving my sleep. To me, sleep is the foundation. I read the book, Why We Sleep. That helped a lot. I now sleep much better.

    I started an exercise routine and began to change my way of eating. I added some supplements to fill in the areas where I was deficient. In particular, I added vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, iron, B-12 and garlic. Although it is best to get these from food (except vitamin D), due to the fact that I don't eat meat and have a desk job, I found supplementation necessary at least in the short term. Some things, like magnesium, are hard to get enough of when on a calorie-restricted diet (almonds, for example, are good sources but high in calories). Much of the research for my supplement stack was done at examine.com.

    Lately, I have been paying more attention to my sodium to potassium ratio. I found that it was worse than I thought due mainly to things like the vegetarian sausage patties I was adding to my eggs. So now I eat fewer of those and more high potassium foods like sweet potatoes, dried apricots and avocado.

    I can't put my finger on one thing. It's probably the totality of it all, but based on my research, it seems like reducing sodium and increasing potassium has the most bang for the buck when it comes to blood pressure.

    Hope this helps.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    Awesome results for your efforts.

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