Blood pressure

[rotor]

Anygun, have they checked for pheochromocytoma, carcinoid and renal artery stenosis? Flareups of severe hypertension as you describe definietly need a good endocrine workup.

[anygunanywhere]

Anygun, have they checked for pheochromocytoma, carcinoid and renal artery stenosis? Flareups of severe hypertension as you describe definietly need a good endocrine workup.

Yep. Several times. This is why the endocrinologists are scratching their heads.

Mrs Anygunanywhere attends all of my appointments as she loves me and wants to make certain I am well cared for.

Picture my lovely angel sitting on a chair in the examination room as the doctors are going over my results.

She speaks up and says "I can tell you why he has these flare ups. No amount of your tests are going to show anything. He is plain and simply an xxxxxxx."

I love that woman.

Anygunanywhere

[The Annoyed Man]

Men who have heart attacks at under 50 years of age have an EXTREMELY high rate of morbidity. Men who have heart attacks at more than 65 years of age tend to have a much lower rate of morbidity. From 50-65 is a transitional time where the morbidity starts to decline, slowly at first. The reason is that by an older age, blockages of the coronary arteries that cause eschemia/infarction tend to have been gradually built up, and in response the body has gradually built up collateral circulation in the heart muscle, bypassing the affected artery. That collateral circulation won't permit you to run a marathon, but it can sustain life if you rest and get help when you begin to feel the symptoms. I wouldn't count on this to avoid getting medical care, but your age could be a determiner for whether or not you call 911 for paramedics NOW, or drive yourself to the ER, or call your doctor to make an appointment and discuss your concerns.

In a healthy adult male, systolic pressures of 150 or more would be normal under vigorous exercise, but ABSOLUTELY NOT NORMAL while at rest or slow calm movements. In other words, if getting up to get a beer spikes your BP up over 150 systolic, you've got serious enough issues that you should see your doctor about it. If your resting BP is 150 systolic and you are not on medication for it, you soon will be.

But the diastolic pressure of 110 is a concern too. That is your systemic pressure between heartbeats.....in other words, it is your pressure at standstill. Your heart operates within a "safe zone." A diastolic number that is too low is as dangerous as one that is too high, and for any one of a number of reasons. So if your resting diastole is 110, you have significant issues and should seek out medical intervention as soon as you can. Either number, elevated to far, means that your heart is working much harder than it should to circulate your blood. Too hard, and the system collapses. Not hard enough, and the system collapses. This stuff is nothing to joke about.

But it it is the BP combined with the heaviness in the chest that is cause for real concern, and I would deal with it TODAY. It might be acid reflux causing the sense of a heavy chest, but that is not something you want to rely on. You should want to KNOW what is causing it, even if it means blowing your ammo budget for the next 6 months to do it.

[VMI77]

Twenty percent of the population has high blood pressure. The signs of heaviness in the chest are classic for pre-infarction or even infarction. I know as I have two stents. The combination of the above is not good. It is very hard to realize that you need to go to the ER or you might die (it was hard for me to tell my wife let's go to the ER). You would not be the first person to die at home with a myocardial infarction and you won't be the last. So, it comes down to the money. The poor trash on Medicaid would have already been in the ER to have it checked. The person who pays the bills for the poor trash sits home and ????. Better to have it checked than to leave your wife with funeral arrangements. Your local doc is not good enough. Go to the ER.

Not necessarily. I have excessively HBP without medication. I went through a period of chest heaviness and tightness so extreme I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be GERD --acid reflux. The chest pains and heaviness went away after a couple months of medication.

Inferior wall MI classic symptoms are heartburn and acid reflux type symptoms. You were lucky. Perhaps that is why so many die at home. They think a Prilosec will cure their problem.

I went to the doctor. Like I said, I thought I was having a heart attack. When I tool my BP at Walmart one day and it read 210/120, I went to an after hours clinic right away. I thought the machine must be wrong but didn't want to take a chance. Turned out it wasn't wrong. I have no idea how long it had been running high...possibly for over a year. My BP is out of control without medication. My father had HBP. His father died from it as there was no treatment back then.

[RPBrown]

I found out the hard way about the taking of blood pressure. I had been to my doctor several times late last year and early this year and each time they took my BP and it was high. They put me on a low dose of BP meds and 2 days later I was sitting at my desk and almost passed out. Got myself together enough to call my wife to come and get me and take me to the doc. We went in, still feeling a little light headed and the doc was on an emergency but I was able to see the PA. She started to take my BP and commented that she had to get a bigger cuff. Now the cuff she had been using was the same one that the nurses had used every time I had been in. When she came back and started to hook me up, I asked why. She stated that the other cuff was too small and would give a false reading (which it had). She checked my pressure and it was at 60/45 and she commented that it was too low. I was then told to stop taking the BP meds and come back in 2 days for a recheck. Two days later I was at 105/60 and within normal limits.

Each time I go back now, I will tell them to get the larger cuff before they take it.

[suthdj]

Thanks all for all the responses. I did go and see the Dr my BP in the office was 161/110 so bottom line is change diet, exercise, take pills and some more pills, follow up in a couple weeks for blood work, stress test once meds stabilize my BP, and a thyroid test for some reason I forget, oh and best part stay at home to rest. So I cant eat anymore of those high sodium frozen dinners even if they say healthy in the name.Can't eat my wifes cooking as she is Chinese and it is not as healthy as people think, I guess I could find a different wife but that might not go over so good with the current one you know what they say about those crazy asian women and meat cleavers, I guess thats why she does not feel the need for a gun. So long story short, thanks.

Now to keep this thread alive I need some healthy food recipes. I am a guy and wife is in China at the moment so keep it simple.

[SQLGeek]

Suth...glad you went to the doctor and got looked at.

My recommendation? Reduce your intake of processed foods, go for fresh food as much as possible.

Since you're at home resting, get comfy and look into the Paleo Diet (diet really being a misnomer, it is more of a lifestyle):

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10 ... aleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Google around for a while and see what's out there. It seems extreme on its face but you can work into it.

[cheezit]

try http://www.allrecipies.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DocV]

Have a look at the Mediterranean Diet. Starting here http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medite ... et/CL00011 for the Mayo Clinic's marketing blurb. The over to Doctor Oz's shopping list http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/mediterr ... pping-list. Then over here http://www.cookinglight.com/food/quick- ... age32.html for some quick recipes.

[Edit: Fixed the Mayo clinic URL]

[jayinsat]

Suth...glad you went to the doctor and got looked at.

My recommendation? Reduce your intake of processed foods, go for fresh food as much as possible.

Since you're at home resting, get comfy and look into the Paleo Diet (diet really being a misnomer, it is more of a lifestyle):

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10 ... aleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Google around for a while and see what's out there. It seems extreme on its face but you can work into it.

this! I cut out processed foods and eat higher protein and low glycemic index carbs for 3 weeks and lost 20 lbs. went from 194 to 174 and I'm 5'9". I do eat some higher index carbs now (potatoes, bananas) but only whole foods. Nothing processed. Paleo is a great start.

I am so glad you went. We need you around here.

[suthdj]

Suth...glad you went to the doctor and got looked at.

My recommendation? Reduce your intake of processed foods, go for fresh food as much as possible.

Since you're at home resting, get comfy and look into the Paleo Diet (diet really being a misnomer, it is more of a lifestyle):

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10 ... aleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Google around for a while and see what's out there. It seems extreme on its face but you can work into it.

this! I cut out processed foods and eat higher protein and low glycemic index carbs for 3 weeks and lost 20 lbs. went from 194 to 174 and I'm 5'9". I do eat some higher index carbs now (potatoes, bananas) but only whole foods. Nothing processed. Paleo is a great start.

I am so glad you went. We need you around here.

Since the wife has been out of town all I have been eating is processed food but hey it says healthy in the name. Needless to say I will have to make some changes in my food intake for the time being lunch will have to remain as it is but my dinners I can work with and maybe make extra for next days lunch. thanks all for the links.

[nyj]

Don't ever put off something that doesn't feel right. I worked a cardiac arrest last week...guy wasn't feeling good the night before, and 6am in the morning he dropped. This is usually how they go.

[RoyGBiv]

I'm constantly amazed by the stuff my wife (an excellent cook to begin with) makes out of a weight watchers cookbook.
sometimes it's hard to avoid thirds.

[mojo84]

Chew a couple of aspirins and head to the doc or urgent care clinic.