Blood Pressure

Rotten experience, dj. My pharmacist will always give me some of my tablets to keep me going if the GPs repeat prescription system goes wrong. I expect he's okayed it with the practice. Seems like a sensible thing to do for long-term medications.

The pharmacy will also deliver a prescription if you can't get to them.

I do agree that for certain people the cause of their high BP is a total mystery and try as they might they are lumbered with it.

But I also think too few really try to tackle it through lifestyle changes and just pop the pills as the preferred option.

he said that apart from reducing salt and fat intake (my emphasis) there was really nothing you could do to make a significant difference

The 'might' and 'would' referred to losing weight.....

I think you're a tough old bird stronger than that DJ and provided you don't get into any discussion with the 'rabid right wing' you ought to be ok

Trust Me I'm A Doctor has had an interesting programme on blood pressure, not if it is still available on catch up.

They can't get rid of me that easily...can they, Anya?
The NHS, I mean, not GN.

Is there a difference between might and would?
Badenkate said her GP suggested it might make a difference, not that it would.

Perhaps you ought to give GN a miss .... just in case

That wasn't very helpful DJ - I think a change of chemist is due. Hope you survive the weekend.

I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the point about BP and salt and fat intake. I'm commenting on the statement that Bakenkate's GP apparently thinks this can reduce BP 'significantly' - and probably wondering why that suggestion was rejected out of hand or glossed over by the poster.

I had my blood pressure put up this morning.
Last Tuesday I was going to take a prescription to the GPs surgery, but the village was flooded. Couldn't walk or drive from one side to the other.
So I phoned the surgery and told them about the prescription and they said they would see it was done. Normally they do not take them over the phone, but it was exceptional circumstances. In fact I learned this morning that the pharmacy had floodwater through the door.

Went to pick up my prescription this morning and it wasn't there. I explained, and told them my blood pressure tablets run out tonight. They said they could not loan me any as it wasn't due until Tuesday. I argued a bit, then stomped out, saying, "Okay, I'll just die over the weekend, shall I?"
I am on these tablets because of an aortic dissection two years ago.

Don't suppose I'll die, but they are not getting my prescription from now on.
There are other pharmacies around that will pick up and deliver.
Six different medications on that prescription. I wonder how much they will lose.

There was only one other woman in the pharmacy, picking up a prescription for a friend who only had one tablet left. They said the same to her. She was on the phone to her friend, who checked and said she only had one tablet left. But they insisted they had given her more the last time.

When did chemists get like this?

When I got home I checked my blood pressure. It said too high, seek medical advice!

It rather depends on high your fat and salt intake is in the first place.

So your post implies that your GP said that reducing fat and salt intake would make a significant difference Badenkate

Sorry that should say '.... losing a large amount of weight might make a difference'

I've had high bp for many years as does my sister and have taken medication for about 15 years. I talked to my doctor last week about natural ways to lower bp, and he said that apart from reducing salt and fat intake there was really nothing you could do to make a significant difference. He said if you were extremely overweight then losing a large amount of weight make a difference.
I'm sorry if this goes against beliefs other people have, but actually for me it was a positive talk. I've always, at the back of my mind blamed myself for my high bp - this is probably because I' m a control freak and whatever I did, exercise, diet, special foods, this was something I couldn't seem to control. I' ve now accepted that it's not me doing bad things; it's just my bad luck. So I'll continue to take my medicines and live my life as normal without feeling a failure.
My advice is: listen to your doctor - my mother lived to 95 with high bp. It's not a failing with your lifestyle any more than poor eyesight or hearing problems - and just be thankful that we're living now and not 100 years ago, and that the NHS is here to take care of us ?

I am sure that is right Yogadatti. My BP only went up as I put on weight with the menopause so it makes sense that losing weight has caused it to go down. OH has lost a lot of weight too, his cholesterol has gone right down and he has got right out of pre-diabetes, but his BP has only gone down by a bit. His BP became extremely high in his late forties and didn't seem to be related to much, except perhaps the stress of constant travelling around the world for his job.

Losing weight may work for some but not for others. It is just down to the individual. My weight has never been that high, and I have lost a stone .....but even when I was a really low weight my blood pressure wasn't that low.
I have always eaten a healthy diet, I don't drink at all and I don't smoke, and i walk briskly for over 30 minutes most days, however, I am still on bp Meds and my bp stays up. Mine may be due to excessive anxiety but I have learnt how to breath and can get my pulse so it is in low sixties.....so I
believe it's down to genes with me.

I can honestly say Granarchist that it has not been at all difficult. We get to eat the things we really enjoy and have lost weight without feeling hungry.

well done Mamie I am impressed - its what I need to do.

This week my doctor has told me that I can come off the BP medication that I have been on for about five or six years. This follows a year of gradual weight loss from 12st to 9st and another year of maintaining the lower weight. I have lost the weight through the low-carb way of eating, but won't repeat the details here as it is all in the low-carb threads.
When the weight came off I started to get a few dizzy spells from low BP and my doctor has gradually reduced the medication. At her request I kept a record of my BP for the last three months and with this plus surgery readings of 110/70, I have now been allowed to stop.
I hope this helps the OP.

DH had to have regular medicals throughout his working life as he worked offshore a lot.

Right from his early 20s it was always commented that his blood pressure and blood sugar were normal but very close to the limit. Then he was not overweight, did not smoke, was a very moderate drinker, led an active life and had a good diet (I made sure of that). He started on treatment for high blood pressure at 40.

He has since put on weight, is less active and drinks more, although he still doesn't smoke and his diet remains good. He was diagnosed with diebetes in his late 60s, but it remains very mild and he is on the lowest dose of medication available. A friend, with all the advantage of a healthy lifestyle etc and as thin as a pipecleaner, which he has always been, has severe Type 2 diabetes and this is now affecting his eyesight.

Lifestyle can do so much, but high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes has always been around and in a number of cases has a genetic component.

katyK I don't think 140/90 is 'ideal' blood pressure. I think that's the reading at which doctors consider whether or not medication is needed. Not the same thing.
It seems to me that if someone has hypertension and they're overweight and don't exercise and eat a lot of sugar and junk food, making lifestyle changes may lower their blood pressure, whether or not they consume blueberries or other magic ingredients.
But it's possible to do all the right things and still have hypertension.
Also, if blueberries etc were really pharmacologically active, a) they would be dangerous for people with normal blood pressure and b)you can bet that the drug companies would have exploited them by now.

Ain't that the truth bags

You tend not to say much, galen, probably because you recognise better than most people just how complicated it is. ??

Naturally Galen you don't quack

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-pressure-(high)/Pages/Introduction.aspx best stick with professinal advice rather than those trying to sell you a blueberry cure-all!

Personally I am relying on red wine...I once read somewhere it was good for me