Learn me blood pressure

In reply to pinchvalve:

There are times...

A doctor can only help so much in diagnosing the cause of high blood pressure. Much of that is going to be on you. Sounds like you've got exercise and diet pretty well dialed in. Sure, you can always be better, but with the possible exception of caffeine, sounds like you're doing pretty well.

Look seriously at stress level and what you can do to control that. Given what you do, that seems like a prime candidate. Stress was the primary cause of my issues. Regular meditation and seriously cutting back on my time on social media have helped enormously with that.

So what I'm hearing you saying is that I shouldn't try to drink less. I like it.

Sometimes it's just genetics. There are lots of highly effective anti hypertensive drugs because sometimes they're necessary. That's a decision for a physician and you to make but I wouldn't delay too long to get it under control. There aren't symptoms until damage has been done.

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

Marjorie Suddard wrote: So what I'm hearing you saying is that I shouldn't try to drink less. I like it.

I wouldn't worry about it. You're talking 1-2 glasses per night. Not 1-2 bottles.

Doctors always tell me, "Well, you could try drinking a bit less" when I say I usually have 2 drinks a night. My blood pressure wasn't any better before I started drinking. Went a week without drinking and it didn't help my blood pressure any.

My blood pressure has more to do with the things that drive me to drinking, than the drinks themselves.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

And this is why I love you.

If we are giving personal anecdotes instead of sound medical advice, then here's one:

My BP dropped 10 points after I paid off my student loans. I E36 M3 you not.

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

Here is some anecdotal evidence (I think there is actual evidence out there supporting this fact, but I'm not searching for it right now):

I've been going quasi-vegan "flexitarian" lately. See the thread here.

Despite my sodium intake being quite high lately, my blood pressure is the lowest it has been in 7 years. Down from the worrisome-should-i-go-on-medication? range to normal. Dash diet didn't work, going vegan-ish did.

In reply to mtn:

The other thread said I was going to die of cancer. This one is going to be a heart attack or stroke.

Man you're depressing.

Glad things are working out for you.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to mtn: The other thread said I was going to die of cancer. This one is going to be a heart attack or stroke. Man you're depressing. Glad things are working out for you.

Hey, I've got a long family history of cancer, stroke (although all at an old age), and heart attack. I'd wager that my genetic history, despite living to reasonably old ages, is worse than the average person. When they say that something leads to cancer, and then someone points out the 90 year old who smoked and never got cacner? Yeah, that isn't my relative.

Same with the high BP and everything else. The cancer was what scared me into doing the flexitarian/veganish thing. The BP is a nice benefit, but most of my genetic datapoints have had high BP into old age. So that wasn't a big worry FOR ME.