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Originally Posted by mish_mish
This is great information! Thank you! My grandfather died of a heart attack and my uncle has had bypass surgery so I just don't want to mess around with this.
I am young enough and relatively healthy enough to deal with it. I checked my BP tonight and it was normal. I made sure to sit quietly for about 15 minutes beforehand.
The suggestions above are what I need to keep me eating healthy and exercising--FEAR will motivate me to do most things! My BMI is at the high end of "healthy" and I don't smoke, but I do need to lay off the salt more. I just like it on things and I have salt cravings, but they aren't worth it.
I also get a lot of sinus headaches so I take decongestants a couple of times a week. I had no idea they could affect my BP.
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Patient education is one of the things I really enjoy and when it's in the prevention arena that's even better! My BMI was also on the high side of the healthy range and losing 10 pounds made a huge difference.
re adding salt... you'll find that once you cut it out, you won't even want to add salt....everything will taste really salty! lol. I table salt out about 10 years ago and I really don't miss it. Using pepper and garlic powder helped wean me away from it, but now I'm fine....it's worth trying
If your nasal decongestant contains neosynephrine or phenylenephrine it is absolutely affecting your blood pressure. We use this medication (we refer to it as neo for short) in the ICU to raise someone's blood pressure when it is critically low and it is very potent! They use it in nasal decongestants because it helps to clamp down everything! So while this helps stops sinus drainage it is also raising your blood pressure! While this happens with everyone, it becomes a problem with people who have hypertension because the blood pressure is high to begin with. I would ask your MD for sinus inhalers instead. These changes alone may help manage your blood pressure!