High Systolic blood pressure

[kielbasa]

My parents have one of those electronic blood pressure measuring devices and over the last.. 3.. maybe even 4 years my dad has been telling me my systolic blood pressure is unusually high for a 17 year old.

I usually receive readings of around 145 / 75 with a pulse pretty much always under 60, in mornings under 50.

its the systolic (145) thats the problem. i checked with my original GP a few months ago and he said im perfectly fine... i checked with a friend whose a herbalist and he said it was kindve high but he noticed i am kinda... stressfull (at the time maybe.. i was doing my final year of school, and over the last 3-4 years of high school i usually got 5-6hours MAX of sleep per school night), so that probably contributed?

I recently checked with yet another doctor for my blood pressure out of curiosity and he was kindve surprised it was that high. he's making me mark down my blood pressure for the next week or two about 2-3 times a day to see how i stand. occasionally it goes over 150, and rarely under 130.

im hoping now that im on holiday and sleeping a good 8-9hours a day that it will help me chill, and ive read salt and sodium dont help much for high blood pressure either. I've also been told that eating garlic helps reduce it apparantly, and for the last 5 days or so I've been eating around 4-8 garlic seeds a day... still bit early to notice any changes

im just wondering if anyone here knows much on this topic and knows what diets can help with this issue? what foods help reduce it, etc

help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

[Firehawk]

How big an ole boy are ya?

I'm 6'3 and 297 and my bp is usually around 140/75, never higher than 140 and never higher than 80 on the bottom. They told me for my size it's perfectly fine. The top number is less concerning than the bottom one too. You might have genetically higher blood pressure. It sounds like if ur Resting heartrate is 60 then you're in pretty good shape. Do you have high cholesterol or anything?

Losing weight will help drop the BP in people who don't have genetically high BP.

[.V.]

In the old days...damn, I can't believe I'm actually old enough to be able to say that. Systolic BP was supposed to be approximately 100+your age. Now it is said that it's better to keep it below 140 regardless of age. In reality though, unless you are getting up there over 170-180 systolic there isn't that much to worry about. It isn't even treated unless you get into the 190 range by most docs. Above 220 or 230 is considered a hypertensive crisis and has to be reduced immediately.

Now the bottom number is more dangerous over a period of years. It should be low - the closer to 100 it gets the harder your heart is having to work to pump blood around your body - the more your risk for a heart attack earlier in life.

To reduce it, get your cholesterol levels down. Don't eat too many carbs or too much fat. Eat your garlic, don't add extra salt to your food (not the devil it was once thought to be, but isn't particularly helpful for blood pressure), eat your green vegetables - the more greens the better - especially broccoli and cauliflower. Stick with a good muscle building lifting plan to keep that excess glycogen burned up (keeps it from being stored as saturated fat and cholesterol) and a good cardio plan to keep that heart pumping strong and healthy.

Do these things and you should be fine.

And one more thing to remember - get it checked by a professional with a real BP cuff and a real stethoscope. Those little home use electrnic machines are notoriously inaccurate. Most health departments, doctor's offices, and EMS agencies will check it for you free of charge as often as you like. I use 16,000 dollar one at work and if I really need an accurate number, I won't trust it I use a simple cuff and stethoscope - 100% accurate.

Firehawk mentioned Genetically high BP - that's always a consideration too. Each of our bodies is different and the higher number may be perfectly normal for you. I've seen people who had scary high numbers and it was not a problem for them - they inherited those pressures from their 100 year old grandparents and 80 year old parents. I've also seen some people who have frighteningly low numbers too whom it was perfectly normal for. I'm talking about a systolic of 60 - low enough that if that was my BP, I'd have to be in profound cardiogenic shock to cause it. Check your familial history before you get too concerned right now.

[Firehawk]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

In the old days...damn, I can't believe I'm actually old enough to be able to say that. Systolic BP was supposed to be approximately 100+your age. Now it is said that it's better to keep it below 140 regardless of age. In reality though, unless you are getting up there over 170-180 systolic there isn't that much to worry about. It isn't even treated unless you get into the 190 range by most docs. Above 220 or 230 is considered a hypertensive crisis and has to be reduced immediately.

Now the bottom number is more dangerous over a period of years. It should be low - the closer to 100 it gets the harder your heart is having to work to pump blood around your body - the more your risk for a heart attack earlier in life.

To reduce it, get your cholesterol levels down. Don't eat too many carbs or too much fat. Eat your garlic, don't add extra salt to your food (not the devil it was once thought to be, but isn't particularly helpful for blood pressure), eat your green vegetables - the more greens the better - especially broccoli and cauliflower. Stick with a good muscle building lifting plan to keep that excess glycogen burned up (keeps it from being stored as saturated fat and cholesterol) and a good cardio plan to keep that heart pumping strong and healthy.

Do these things and you should be fine.

And one more thing to remember - get it checked by a professional with a real BP cuff and a real stethoscope. Those little home use electrnic machines are notoriously inaccurate. Most health departments, doctor's offices, and EMS agencies will check it for you free of charge as often as you like. I use 16,000 dollar one at work and if I really need an accurate number, I won't trust it I use a simple cuff and stethoscope - 100% accurate.

Firehawk mentioned Genetically high BP - that's always a consideration too. Each of our bodies is different and the higher number may be perfectly normal for you. I've seen people who had scary high numbers and it was not a problem for them - they inherited those pressures from their 100 year old grandparents and 80 year old parents. I've also seen some people who have frighteningly low numbers too whom it was perfectly normal for. I'm talking about a systolic of 60 - low enough that if that was my BP, I'd have to be in profound cardiogenic shock to cause it. Check your familial history before you get too concerned right now.

I taught you everything you know man...

Welch after my surgery i had to lay still, so i was still from 7:30am till 8:30pm, they sat me up and my blood pressure plummeted, i think they got one reading of like 80/53 or something, and my skin turned white in my face and upper body. So they tilted me back down so my feet were in the air, then just raised me up a few degrees every 15 mins till i could get up lol. That was scary dude. I've never had a problem like that before. They said it's common if ur laying down that long to have to get ur heart used to pumping blood again.

[threenorns]

one other thing: if that's your blood pressure and that's how it's always been, then that's one thing. you're in trouble when your blood was, for example, below 130/80 last month and now it's over 140/90.

the new marker is that 130/80 to 139/89 is "high normal/warning" while 140/90 is high blood pressure.

mine is down to 130-something over low to mid-90s and my doctor peeled a strip off me, saying it was deplorable for someone my age.

[kielbasa]

im 17, 6foot and 176pounds

im not overweight or anything, doubt its genetic my parents n stuff were fine apart from a grandmother on my mothers side who had heart problems

il go to a doctor in a couple days and get it checked out again and if need be like he said last time - get some blood tests and see whats up etc

[threenorns]

you can't tell without tests whether or not your ancestors were fine - there's no outward sign of high blood pressure. "heart problems" is not the same as high blood pressure. my father just had triple bypass and his blood pressure is and always has been 100/60 to 110/70, which is staggeringly exemplary in a 64 yr old man packing nearly 300 pounds at five-ten. even his pulse is amazing: resting pulse is low 60s and stays under 100 even when he's working. he had no problem managing wheelbarrows weighing 300lbs or more all day long when he did the annual rock-clearing of the neighbour's back lot so the blade on the guy's plow doesn't get trashed. there was no sign at all of heart problems until they did a full-battery cardiac stress test after he had what they thought might maybe possibly ("but we're not sure, so we're gonna do all these tests") have had a heart attack while unloading pumpkins for the neighbour (the neighbour, btw, is in his 80s or 90s or something).

honestly, though, if you never had any problems (things like gasping for air at the top of the stairs, constantly feeling tired and drained even though you sleep a lot and aren't under stress, and what feels like panic attacks), i doubt you have anything to worry about.

[Maxgain]

115 over 75 is now ideal for blood pressure but generally drs wont worry unless you are greater than 150/100.
Despite your low diastolic blood pressure it is still the one that is in the higher catagory difference that would describe your condition so you would be
classified with stage one hypertension.
To combat this you will need to eat a low sodium diet
exercise daily
supplement with - coenzyme q10 120mg daily
garlic 200-300mg 3xday
fishoils 3-4g epa/dha day

Ask your doctor to test your potassium caalcium and magnesium levels asthes all have important roles in BP.

Maxgain