Rise in blood pressure

I'm not a doctor obviously but try not to worry. Not easy I know. When I was in my 40s mine was as high as 210/110. I have lived to tell the tale. I panicked and told GP I feared I was going to die. She said that anyone could, but it wouldn't be due to my BP. I've been in such a state over it at times. Now I just take my meds and try to forget it. I'm 76 now!

This post could have been written by me. My blood pressure is borderline and I have a left bundle branch block and mild reflux. I have medication for my bp but my concern is that you don't mention any anti-coagulant which guards against stroke. If you are not taking this type of medication then I would have a chat with your GP asap. Good luck.

Mine rose to 170 even though I was only verapamil and 5mg Ramipril. Dr increased it to 10 mg Ramipril and I now have regular checks on kidneys. Much better, but still hovers around 140.

Mine is deemed too high - in the 2020s era.

It wouldnt have been though in the 1960s - so I shrug and refuse statins.

My family are very heavily a heart attack family. But my measurements are okay for the 1960s and so I leave it...rather than contributing to drug company profits.

The 1960s say:
150/90 - acceptable for middle age
160/95 - often considered acceptable for older people.

Basically they base it on a persons age and only expect 120 as the "starter" figure for someone in their 20's.

I reckon things have changed in recent decades because the drug companies want more profits - and not because it is genuinely necessary.

CariadAgain

Mine is deemed too high - in the 2020s era.

It wouldnt have been though in the 1960s - so I shrug and refuse statins.

My family are very heavily a heart attack family. But my measurements are okay for the 1960s and so I leave it...rather than contributing to drug company profits.

The 1960s say:
150/90 - acceptable for middle age
160/95 - often considered acceptable for older people.

Basically they base it on a persons age and only expect 120 as the "starter" figure for someone in their 20's.

I reckon things have changed in recent decades because the drug companies want more profits - and not because it is genuinely necessary.

Absolutely agree CariadAgain, the less medication I can take the better.

CariadAgain

Mine is deemed too high - in the 2020s era.

It wouldnt have been though in the 1960s - so I shrug and refuse statins.

My family are very heavily a heart attack family. But my measurements are okay for the 1960s and so I leave it...rather than contributing to drug company profits.

The 1960s say:
150/90 - acceptable for middle age
160/95 - often considered acceptable for older people.

Basically they base it on a persons age and only expect 120 as the "starter" figure for someone in their 20's.

I reckon things have changed in recent decades because the drug companies want more profits - and not because it is genuinely necessary.

All the standard BP drugs are generic now - ie they cost pennies and no-one is making a fortune by prescribing or selling them. Deaths and illness from heart diseases have dropped massively since the 1960s because of these medicines and incontrovertible evidence that lower BP thresholds are linked to better outcomes.

It is very common to be prescribed several different types of medication to help you get blood pressure down, as the different types work in different ways to achieve this.

When I was 60 my BP was so high the GP went and asked advice from another GP. They put me on two medications and a statin. I'm now 73 and have had no issues since. Worrying just makes things worse.

Mine has gone up over the past couple of years, initially they did one of those 24 hour check things, hooked up to a machine. Now they don't seem to bother about it.
I'm also on a relatively low dose statin and have started going to the gym three times a week, hope it makes a difference.

Argymargy, you wrote exactly what I would say.

Originally told that anything over 139/120 was serious, my GP now says 150/130. I was worried when it regularly came in at 145/110, but now they seem not concerned.

"No need for statins" doc thought, but nurse decided otherwise.

"Fatty liver" - try to lose a little weight - NHS say it is very difficult to do so if you have a fatty liver, but both offer nothing more than eat healthily and lose weight (There is a hole in my bucket...)

I'll just go away and fall apart quietly then

I don’t suggest anyone does what I did but maybe chat to your GP if you consider it .
I,ve been on BPmedication for decades after two pregnancies with life threatening eclampsia ,one resulted in a neo natal death at four days and the other in an emergency section at 27 weeks and 4 days baby is now 38 .
However my be didn,t come down after his birth so I was told pills were the way forward.
Last year after several GP appointments for a cough that kept me up most night s and no solution I stopped theBP meds and hey presto the cough went away .
I did call the GP after a few weeks and kept check on my numbers which were lower than whenI was on the medication.
Apparently ( from a friend who is a nurse practitioner) there is very rarely need for lifetime use of these meds,the GP should be sourcing the reason for the problem and working towards at solution BP meds don’t solve the narrowing arteries or the viscosity of the blood but there are things that will help.
I,m now nearly 6 months without them and I,m fine

FranPMILK THISTLE pills will help the fatty liver

My husband refuses meds for "slightly elevated" BP recently. He's exercising, pretty healthy eating and 2 cups of Hibiscus tea a day and it's already coming down. Still advise a chat with health proffesional before self medicating.

I'm glad you mentioned hibiscus tea, graciemabel - there's also mistletoe tea. I exercise, meditate, do Reiki, receive Reiki and reflexology.

I’m sure you’re doing all the right things, Sallywally1. It definitely helps if you can keep calm, so maybe taking something like Ashwagandha for anxiety would be a good idea?
I recently added Beetroot to the stack of “clean” supplements I take every day, after a bizarre blood pressure reading, taken at home, of 166/140, which remained high all day and ended up at 183/92. This freaked me out, but my son’s GP girlfriend said nothing to worry about . Anyway, it’s now way down and seems fairly stable. As for statins, I wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole, but I would consider taking clean plant sterols if I felt it was necessary.

I have Hibiscus tea (the blossoms, not tea bags) every day and have done so for at least 8 years (I'm 81). I'm overweight and don't exercise a lot but every GP/nurse is see always comment on my good blood pressure. I'm totally convinced that the Hibiscus works, if you read the literature and background to it you are warned not to have more than two cups a day as it can lower it too much. It is a very refreshing drink, hot or cold, in the summer I make it and put it in the fridge. It's worth a try if you want to avoid BP medication before you have to.

I have been reading that aged garlic is very good for lowering BP. Might be worth looking into if you want to avoid multiple meds and prefer a natural way.

In my nursing days (many, many moons ago) B.P. was classed as normal if the top number was 100 plus your age, the lower number anything under a 100, but the lower the better.

You've reminded me - I've got hibiscus tea in....must get back to drinking it.

Though I'm wondering if the stress levels might be a bit lower now - as another one of my awful-type bad neighbours has recently moved out and fingers crossed hard currently I'll get a more normal one replacing her (yep...to anyone who might like to state that it wasnt her fault = she broke something in my garden literally the day she moved in and refused to apologise or put it right and it went on from there - and cost me £1,000 of MY money to deal with the problem she had caused).

So that reminds me - must get my blood pressure monitor out again and do a few days checking as to what it says....but I'm not going to worry unduly as long as it's not over 150 and it rarely went up that far even when she and another bad neighbour were both in residence at the same time.

So - yep I do think stress is a lot of what causes blood pressure to rise anyway (whatever era of measurements one uses).

I have high blood pressure, which I ignore. When a doctor talked about strokes and heart attacks I said, ‘So what do you recommend I die of instead?’ Better something quick than cancer or dementia.

watermeadow -same here.
I had a letter from the GP, suggesting I go to their ‘Pod’ and check my BP. I did it 3 tines - roughly 160/95.
I am presuming this reading went directly to the GP’s computer. Haven’t heard anything. It’s over 3 months now.
I am on Amlodipine 5mg daily. I am not going to worry.

Very true watermeadow. We've all got to go of something at some point - it's one of the few certainties in life.

Everyone I get to know particularly has strict instructions that if I have the family "heart attack" - so prevalent both sides of my family = they are to leave me alone and not resuscitate me. If they do = I will be livid with them. Hauled back to Earth again and with cracked ribs in the process = they'd better head out of the room quick before I remember every single swear word I know.

Though I am assuming that a heart attack would be quick and painless in my case - as I did die once before years back. I was there "on the threshold" having one of those Near Death Experiences and being hauled back here so to say and came to feeling like a block of ice/coldest by far that I've ever been (on a hot summers night in southern England). I have often wondered what it would say as "cause of death" if I hadnt been hauled back by the scruff of my neck and presume it would have been a heart attack.

Yep....cancer sounds pretty awful and I've got someone who I've been friendly with for a while dying gradually of it now and she ain't holding back telling it like it is and it's taking months. The only plus point is she's busily getting her life in order - making a will, decluttering, having a last good holiday, etc - and so I think she's got a very positive take on it. But she complains (understandably) about pain and lack of energy and loss of hair. The only virtue I can see of that is that I would regard cancer as = plenty of preparation time and plan in place to be gone within 1 hour flat at a time of my choosing. So that's an advantage imo to heart attacks and strokes - as I'd be in control and could/would decide exactly when I'd die and so I'd rather (if need be) that it was cancer if it came to it - as I'd get out my "emergency supplies in case" that I have and be gone that day. So it would be more under my control than some things would be.

crazyH

watermeadow -same here.
I had a letter from the GP, suggesting I go to their ‘Pod’ and check my BP. I did it 3 tines - roughly 160/95.
I am presuming this reading went directly to the GP’s computer. Haven’t heard anything. It’s over 3 months now.
I am on Amlodipine 5mg daily. I am not going to worry.

Didnt you get the reading?

I remember my last doctors practice and I could walk into a little room with a machine there, stick my arm in it and I'd be given the reading by the machine.

Over here - I've had to go to a doctor some distance from car-less me and the machine they should have does exist - but it's plonked straight there in the middle of a waiting room full of patients!!!!! ie pretty much worse than useless then imo. Visions of how one is supposed to just walk in in passing, sit down calmly and quietly in a little room on your own and wait some minutes for it to "calm" and then take it...

watermeadow

I have high blood pressure, which I ignore. When a doctor talked about strokes and heart attacks I said, ‘So what do you recommend I die of instead?’ Better something quick than cancer or dementia.

The outcome often isn't quick or death, just severe disability, pain and total dependence on others, not unlike terminal cancer or dementia. Good luck with that.