Blood pressure

13 Aug 15

[rey]

I need to lower my blood pressure a little for a physical tomorrow. Is it possible to lower one's blood pressure in 24 hours? If so, how?

[katana]

All true. But I’d add that making yourself nervous with worry about the test to the point of asking total strangers for advice on how to affect the result certainly won’t help.

[freedomlover]

Eat cinnamon.

---

I agree. Swallow a big handful right before you walk in the doc’s office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ6bzrqjo4M

[DCBryan1]

If its tomorrow, can't help you. Maybe take a day off from work, take a walk in the morning, drink a beer/2 fingers of wine an hour before blood pressure test. Don't cross your legs. Don't talk. Think about good things like a recent OPUS or something funny.

If you had a week. 20 minutes of exercise (light jog/quick walk/bike) at Breakfast, Noon, and dinner will lower your BP dramatically the next day.

Im on Amplodimine and HCT, with Clonidine at night.

....and 30 lbs overweight. Get the weight off if you have it.

[entropy12]

I am on BP meds for 25 years and still kicking! But my dosage is minimum possible.

[Axenolith]

Find a route that is about 5-7 miles and rises at least 4 or 5000 feet and try to get up it as absolutely fast as you can. If your on your hands and knees in the last part, you’ll have done good, the arteries will be all stretched out
;-)

[Mears]

I thought sea salt had the same amount of sodium as regular table salt.

.

[gaijin]

I remember the celery thing does work, in the short term, like for three hours or so.

PRACTICE TAKING YOUR OWN MEASUREMENT.

Those things cost $30 at Walmart.

[Gamecock]

Exactly!

I just put a 24 year old on BP meds.

What you do early on has a much larger impact that what you do at 50 or 60.

[entropy12]

Cinnamon is the miracle condiment which keeps my blood sugar in check.

[tflabo]

A friend uses a herbal remedy called “Blood Pressure factors’... Oh and make sure you are resting for about 5 minutes before taking the BP readings. If your BP is running pretty high don’t mess around with it. It happened to me and I’m not a big guy so I take a low dose BP med.

[Responsibility2nd]

Short of stabbing yourself, I dunno.

Aspirin, maybe?

______________________________________

Heh heh. That was my first (snarky) thought.

You wanna lower your blood pressure?

Just open a vein, man.

[Cold Heart]

Garlic pills work. Back in the sixties an old way over weight sea captain failed his BP. The Dr told him to go around the corner to a China Town market and eat some garlic, come back in an hour or so. He was able to rejoin his ship. Oat meal for breakfast, daily, will also lower your cholesterol over time.

[antidisestablishment]

Vitamin B3 (niacin) lowers BP for a short period after ingestion. Higher doses also cause a distinctive flush—like a sunburn—both in appearance and raised skin temperature due to the dilation of capillaries. Niacinamide is a sustained release form of niacin that does not cause flushing, but I am not sure that it has the same immediate effect on BP.

Overdosing on Niacinamide has been linked to liver damage. Regular niacin is not thought to be a overdose hazard, though one death has reportedly been attributed to niacin and the side effects can be severely uncomfortable—flushing, itching, dry skin, dizziness, and tachycardia (heart palpitations).

I agree with others that you shouldn’t try to fool your physician. If you have hypertension, the side effects of unknown medications can be dangerous. Trying to take something the night before is not safe, nor reasonable. You do not know how your body will react and dosages should be tailored over time for efficacy. Experimentation is more dangerous when you are both the tester and the test subject.

[cripplecreek]

Make a hole in yourself somewhere.

[Dr. Sivana]

Thank you. It is for my CDL and job. I was 144 over 98 and I need to be 140 over 90 or lower. Some here think I should be unemployed because of some arbitrary government number.

My personal physician says that the new guidelines set the bar at 150 over 100. It is arbitrary, like those BFM numbers.

Get enough sleep, relax, drink hibiscus tea, cut out all added salt (including in condiments like mustard) and avoid salty foods in general. Avoid licorice or anything that leeches potassium. Take potaasium and magnesium. Take flax twice a day.

I did the above and knocked off 30 points from a higher reading than yours . . . but it took a month.

[Radagast the Fool]

Often times, your bp readings are higher when you have it taken by the MD..it’s called, “white coat syndrome” or something like that. Mine are always higher when the MD takes them.
I bought a wrist monitor from Amazon for under $50 and after checking it’s accuracy against my MD’s readings(it’s pretty accurate), I take my bp at home and keep a chart for my MD to see, so she gets a more complete picture of my readings.
Having just shared what I’m sure is too much information, perhaps keeping a chart that you can share with any MD you encounter will help them get more accurate info; I’m sure MDs conducting pre-employment exams see high readings all the time..it’s a stressful time for anyone, of course their readings are gonna be high! Maybe at your exam tomorrow ask them to take the reading after you’ve been there awhile..can’t hurt!
Anyway good luck!

[Waryone]

Magnesium also relaxes blood vessels. I had never had blood pressure problems before but while in labor, my blood pressure soared to 200/140. The doctor didn’t want to give me blood pressure medicine because it might my hurt the baby. He gave me magnesium to lower the pressure. Magnesium is a natural mineral found in the body and it worked.

[mass55th]

If you are prone to high blood pressure, and aren’t taking care of it, you leave yourself open for a stroke, heart attack, aneurysm, etc. My sister rarely went to the doctor, and her blood pressure was always high when she did. She always put it off to “white coat syndrome.” She ended up with four aneurysms because her blood pressure was allowed to run rampant with no medication to control it. They ended up having to tie off the largest aneurysm. The other three they monitored. She actually died of lung cancer after having stopped smoking for five years, but aneurysms can be genetic according to her neurosurgeon. I’ve been on hypertension medication since I was 28. I’m 68 now.

[Afterguard]

I’ve been told that a plastic trash bag over ones head is sometimes effective. /sarc

[nickcarraway]

If you are worried about lowering it, that probably is going to make it worse.