Anyone here suffer from hypertension?

[Nocturnal]

I'm 25 years old, overweight, suffer from hypertension. I'm modifying my diet so that I am eating 5-6 small meals per day along with adding in some walking around the block morning and evening.

Anyway, what are the chances that since I've had hypertension for the past year that my heart is about to fail?

I mean the weird thing is when I take my readings sometimes in the night it's fine but other times the pressure is rather high sometimes above (diastolic) 90 and sometimes even peaks above 100.

I'm going to a doctor tomorrow for this problem so I'll probably get blood work done and what not along with I'm hoping for an EKG. What's kept me from going is pretty much denial and also the fear of having something wrong with me and being diagnosed with x amount of years to live due to my heart.

Hope to hear from all of you.

 

[KMc]

Well, you are certainly doing the right thing and tomorrow all your concerns can be addressed, but I was in roughly the same boat as you, plus had all sorts of genetic baggage working against me. But, I got on Lisinopril for my blood pressure, something else for my cholesterol, got back into cycling, lost 35 pounds and was able to stop taking the cholesterol meds and am now taking the smallest doseage for my hypertension. Now, I'm 39 and really am probably in the best shape of my life.

The key is to get to the point where you really want to consider your health a priority. At the age of 25, barring some strange abnormality, I'd say now is a great time and you can really make any level of improvement you'd want to make. I'd say it took me a good 5-7 years to really change my lifestyle to where I know I'll never go back to where I was again.

 

[child of wonder]

When I was 21 I suddenly started getting really bad nosebleeds. After a bit of that I went to the Dr. and the reason I was getting them so bad was because my BP was 160/110.

I wasn't too much overweight. Maybe 25-30 lbs too big. However, I was smoking a pack a day, eating nothing but junk food, and drinking about 5 Mountain Dews a day.

I got put on meds for it and started watching my sodium intake. 3.5 years ago I quit smoking. At one point after quitting I got up to 282 lbs and went back on meds. Now I'm down to 225 lbs and rarely ever drink caffeine anymore. I try my best to watch my sodium intake but it's really difficult to eat low fat, healthy foods that are also low in sodium.

Right now I'm not on meds and my BP is usually around 134/78. It's still a tad bit high but not dangerously high like it used to be.

Unless you've had high BP your entire life, it's not very likely that you've got only years left to live.

Lose some weight, cut out all caffeine, if you smoke quit ASAP, and watch your sodium intake VERY closely. You'd be amazed at how much salt is in everything. Keep it as low as possible. Eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Bananas are great since they're high in potassium.

 

[Looney]

Nope, i 'm the opposite... hypotension. Not on any meds or anything though, because my doc says that people with hypotension are generally healthier and live longer anyways. Although my feet get cold easily and fall asleep more easily than others.

 

[911paramedic]

Let me take a sec to explain the two numbers in a BP reading for those of you that don't know what they even mean. (Seriously, has a doc ever explained it to you?)

120/80

The 120 is systolic, the highest pressure reached in your arteries when your heart is working. (systole)
The 80 is the pressure in your arteries when the heart is resting, so this could be considered your "resting" pressure. (diastole)

The problem with having the diastolic number high, is that is what your vessels are subjected to ALL THE TIME unless your heart is beating, and then it goes UP. Higher blood pressure causes more tension and weakening of the vessels, that's why you hear of people stroking out that had high bp. (or their aorta dissects, etc.) These things usually take years of high bp, but the sooner you can control it the better. High diastolic pressures over long periods of time is a bad thing.

This concludes my lesson for today.

 

[Nocturnal]

Thanks to everyone. I'm happy to read that I'm not doomed. I want to live until 90 but someone already mentioned that I may be a PITA to my children and my grand children so I'm reconsidering that lol.

 

[eits]

the chances of your heart failing at 25 from being a fatty is slim. keep doing what you're doing and eat healthy stuff. keep the cholesterol down and eat less fatty foods. eat more proteins and less carbs. keep exercising.

you don't need the medication... just don't even deal with it. get your heart working and lose weight. keep going to your doctor to monitor your progress. if your bp is still really high and you've been doing what you were supposed to and you've lost a lot of weight, then start thinking about medication. don't be a fatass and take the lazy person's route...

you need to change your life choices... that starts with not doing what's easiest all the time, because it's obviously not working for you.