high blood pressure

That is just borderline. I would just eat less salt and eat better in general. More veggies, less sugar, less salt.

 

Lose weight.
Less salt.
Less caffeine.
More water.
Take garlic pills.

 

Walk that **** off.

 

Drink water and avoid Gatorade and energy drinks.

 

Get a new doctor. Sounds fishy. He's willing to gamble but are you?

 

Thing is once you’re on BP meds you’re kind of on them for ever. If diet and exercise can’t get it down then why not give it a shot. It could also get a life insurance policy denied

 

Hmmm.. 160/90 seems pretty high IMO, but maybe you were nervous at the doctors office. If you’re sitting around 140 ish, hopefully you can lower that number with your dieting.

As mentioned above, less salt, less sodium, less fast food and fried foods.

Try to eat healthier and see if that improves. Once you pick up a healthy habit, it’ll be easier to maintain it.

I’m currently taking a low dosage BP medicine, but exercise frequently. HBP runs through my family and it is not fun. Try to catch it early, as it is known as the silent killer.

 

The numbers you mentioned are fairly high.

I'm lucky that when I did my biometrics for my job the nurse measured my blood pressure twice; my first reading was something like 130-something over whatever, so she took the reading again. The second reading was good. I was probably nervous and calmed a bit between the readings. Anyway, follow the advice others are listing here. 120/80 is considered good. Once you start creeping past those numbers you are in pre-hypertension and hypertension territory.

 

My BP numbers are similar.

I just order more bean burritos and less burrito supremes and Doritos tacos these days.

 

So, 160 at the doctor's office could be the "white coat" effect. But, 148 is still pretty dang high. The new norm recommendation is 120. I would guess you might be able to achieve a 10 point reduction in that number if you change your ways permanently, i.e. minor lifestyle changes (maybe more if you are doing multiple things right and on a regular basis). Just know that you are not risk free in the 140s regardless of what your doctor says. Other doctors would not let you leave their office without a prescription with those numbers. I would probably take your age into account as well. It's possible your doctor is a GENIUS and can tell you won't have a silent killer issue ending in a stroke or heart attack. lol

 

Diet modification and exercise like others have said.

 

Cut your salt and start exercising. Hypertension is a silent killer, microvascular disease builds up overtime. Your diastolic measurement (bottom#) is after your heart pumps and your arteries are at their baseline. Your systolic (top #) is when your heart pumps the blood initially in the left ventricle, into your arteries (forgetting the pulmonary side for this explanation). It’s higher because you have more volume and thus puts more stress on your arterial wall. Both are important but your diastolic is more telling since that’s the baseline and reflects possible long term issues as it is related to the constriction of your vessels (peripheral vascular resistance). This is why treatments center around decreasing volume and decreasing constriction.

120/80 is considered normal, and extra 20mmHG top # and 10mmHG bottom # is used to classify someone as being hypertensive, however...

To make a diagnosis you need 2 measurements (on two separate occasions). If your BP was that high all the time, it’s pretty bad. But knowing what your trend etc is is what factored into your physician’s decision. Are you on any medications currently that could be increasing your BP?

1) Usually diet, exercise etc (do this anyways)
2) depending on if you’re African American or not the treatment differs. Usually an ACE inhibitor or something (ends in il’ ex: lisinopril) is 1st line unless you’re AA then diuretics (water pills) like thiazides comes into play.

If you’re still hypertensive after that it turns into 2 agents I believe. But regardless good BP control is key. You don’t want Kidney problems, strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and countless other things affecting you. Your doc may have just had 1 hypertensive measurement listen to his advice not clutch fans

 

What do you weight and your height?

 

I would think you are at a greater risk for a vampire attack than say someone with low blood pressure. You'd be messy, but good.

 

Ah...that's nothing...after my wife fractured her C6 vertebra in Hawaii, her BP was 213 over 96.

Seriously though, eat a bit better, exercise a bit better, listen to the doctor and you should be OK.

 

Buy a blood pressure cuff from Amazon and check it at home. http://a.co/fLTxjiM
Don't sit on high blood pressure. If you can't get it down with diet and exercise/weight loss, you should be on medication.

Although, I also don't agree with the new changes to make 130/80 mmHg the new cut off for hypertension either.

 

Please tell us she is OK now.

 

I'd think it would be the opposite. Like a ice cream shake through a too narrow straw. I think I'd prefer the low blood pressure person as there would be less effort.