Health Observation – High Blood Pressure

History:
Back in 1993, my blood pressure suddenly jumped when compared to the previous years and all the years before. Normally it was in the area of 130/70. I am 6 ft 2 in. and at the time, weighed 215 lbs. I did not smoke and was and still am, a light social drinker who went on an occasional toot(like one a quarter). The timing of the BP increase was at the same time as when I suffered a job reversal and weathered a strike. My father had high blood pressure and a stroke felled him when he was only 63, he died of a heart attack three years later, never fully recovering from the effects of the stroke, spending the rest of his days in a veterns hospital.

So I am facing a blood pressure is 150/90. WTF!!!. So I ignored it, waiting for it to go away but after a couple of months, upon advice of my doctor, I went on BP pills. So the pills lowered me back in an acceptable range of 135/80. During my last year of work, I gained weight reaching my highest ever at 230 lbs. I regularly monitored my BP and noticed a shift upwards in tne area of 140/85. Then I retired Dec 2004.

I doubled my time in the gym upon retiring. Without the pressure of work and a planned weight reduction, I was hoping to lower my BP. So I gradually lowered my weight from 230 to 208 where I plateaued out in the spring of 2006. My BP was in the area of 135/80. As I was not making any progress in further weight loss, so sadly, I gave up a habit. It was customery for me to snack on nachos almost every night. About 1/3 of a 240 gram bag with 75 grams of salsa and a beer. Hey, they were trans-fat free and the salsa was fat free and also I figuredI it was a healthy treat plus all the medical articles claimed a drink a day is better than no drink a day for health reasons.

Well within 5 weeks, I lost 10 lbs, reaching 198 lbs, my lightest since 1990. My BP dropped to the area of 105/60. Ah ha!! Thought I. Also my doctor suggested I reduce my dosage when half way through this time period, he noticed my BP was 130/70. I did not follow his suggestion as 130/70 was a good pressure and it would only go up if I lowered my dosage. For example, on my trip to Europe in May 2005, my bag with my blood pressure pills was misplaced and I did without BP pills for 8 days during which my BP climbed to 160/95.

So during the 6th week, I forgot one morning to take my BP pill. I checked my BP that afternoon and it was still ok. So I decided to stop taking the BP pills then and there. So the following day, Tuesday Oct 18, it was 122/82. Hmmm. I did not like the 82 but I decided to continue my experiment(without my doctor’s approval, mind ja).

I checked into the labelling of that favourite snack of mine that I gave up. Between the salsa and the nacho chips, I was injesting 1000 mg of sodium which is nearly half of the daily recommended dosage of 2300 mg. Hmmm, so between the last 10 lbs weight loss and salt reduction, my BP was affected for the good. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that I had my destiny in my own hands. I always wanted to get off those BP pills and all it took was elimination of my favourite snack. Well so be it. This way, I can throw away the BP pills which saves me $80 every 2 months. To date, my pressure, which I check twice a day, is in the 125/75 range. Seems like I am free of the BP pills. It has been over 2 weeks.

My eventual target is to get my weight down to the 190-194 range and keep it there. And to watch my salt intake. I had previously believed the old adage that once on BP pills, always on BP pills.