curious? normal BP/pulse

[D7E]

Hey soundy ..nice to hear from ya again ...Where ya been , This is a subject close to my heart ..HaHa ..I'm 31 and have had high blood pressure since i was 24 ? Normal for me is about 145/80 with med's ,I'm 5ft7 155 lbs and do weights do 50 push ups every night and work as a logger and have a 6 pack..Go figure?
I've had kidney scans ,Blood tests ,Angiograms,ECU's and cholestorol is non existant ,every thing is normal ,And just to top it off i have an enlarged prostate ....Fantastic ...At 31.
Idrink a little and smoke (24 beers a week and 5-10 smokes in the evenings ) but not every night ...Just on bad days .
How good are these doc's , Obviously i have an underlying problem with some-thing ..but 7 years of tests find nothing?
I do amateur boxing , cycle and my job is enough (swing a 10lb chainsaw for 12 hours, 6 days a week) and they tell me my heart rate is high because i might be "UNFIT"
I can do a 10 round fight and do around 90 push-ups in a go and do tug-of war for a hobby ..Ithink i'm above the average slightly ...My 360lb buddy has a bp of 127/70 and drinks a 12 pack every night and smokes 40 smokes a day , Where is the justice ?
So whadda they do.....STRESS ...Get a hobby, So hence the TBN and restoring old tractors ....Don't make a s$#t of difference , Good old wife ..Shes trying to make it up in the "sex life " department ?
PS. Sorry for going on but at my age it hurts me ?

 

[scott_vt]

Hey soundy ,And just to top it off i have an enlarged prostate ....Fantastic ...At 31.

Mornin D7E,
I thought only us old guys had that problem ! If theres a plus I get up just intime to feed the woodstove in the middle of the night !

 

[Soundguy]

I've been poking around.

I'm older than you, and about a half inch shorter than you, 5# lighter, no smokes, no drinks. I also work 6 days a week, 2 jobs, plus the farm. my doc says the same thing.. " I think you aren't getting enough exercise". I looked at her and told her that she wouldn't be able to keep up with me even if she had a helper. I'm up dark-early feeding the horses and cows, toting buckets of slop for the pigs, and grain for the chix. and chow for the dogs ( 6 of them ). I then get showered, zoom to work, work till 4:30, zoom home, change shirt, walk 4 of the dogs, feed horses then turn them out, zoom to my other job and then work till 11pm, zoom home, and get all the feed buckets ready for the next am.. and then get to bed at dark:30... On sunday I stock the bulk feed bins and move hay... I asked her how much more she wanted out of me.... I didn't get an answer... go figure?!? i don't think people that were not farmers or raised on/around a farm have any earthly idea what it takes to keep even a small hobby farm going..

So far my prostrate uh.. sems normal, and cholesteral is normal.

( good to hear from ya though! )

Soundguy

Hey soundy ..nice to hear from ya again ...Where ya been , This is a subject close to my heart ..HaHa ..I'm 31 and have had high blood pressure since i was 24 ? Normal for me is about 145/80 with med's ,I'm 5ft7 155 lbs and do weights do 50 push ups every night and work as a logger and have a 6 pack..Go figure?
I've had kidney scans ,Blood tests ,Angiograms,ECU's and cholestorol is non existant ,every thing is normal ,And just to top it off i have an enlarged prostate ....Fantastic ...At 31.
Idrink a little and smoke (24 beers a week and 5-10 smokes in the evenings ) but not every night ...Just on bad days .
How good are these doc's , Obviously i have an underlying problem with some-thing ..but 7 years of tests find nothing?
I do amateur boxing , cycle and my job is enough (swing a 10lb chainsaw for 12 hours, 6 days a week) and they tell me my heart rate is high because i might be "UNFIT"
I can do a 10 round fight and do around 90 push-ups in a go and do tug-of war for a hobby ..Ithink i'm above the average slightly ...My 360lb buddy has a bp of 127/70 and drinks a 12 pack every night and smokes 40 smokes a day , Where is the justice ?
So whadda they do.....STRESS ...Get a hobby, So hence the TBN and restoring old tractors ....Don't make a s$#t of difference , Good old wife ..Shes trying to make it up in the "sex life " department ?
PS. Sorry for going on but at my age it hurts me ?

 

[ragkar]

As one of the many people suffering from high BP I've done some research into it and treatments. My understanding is that over 140/100 is considered marginally high. The lower number is the most significant.
For those of you on medication, I recommend doing a search for the results of the 'allhat' medical study. They found that 50mg chlorthalidone is as effective for many people as the more expensive medications. The difference is $4 per pill versus $.21 per pill. At that price, insurance co-payments are prohibitive, so I don't use my insurance. I've got a deal with drugstore.com Online Pharmacy - Prescription Drugs, Health and Beauty, plus more for 90 day supplies renewable for one year automatically billed and payed.

 

[RobertN]

Just an FYI, at the Fire Station we'll check BP too for walk in's. Most Fire Companies will do this(at least at staffed stations...)

Anyway.. i decided to get one of them nifty automated checkers.. so now I check 2-3 times a day.. about 5 days a week, and jot my numbers down.. so far the 'average on the machine shows 116 / 79 -78bpm

A couple years ago i had a cousing going to nursing school, so for a year she built up her skill doing pulse/BP ... and I always recall being in the 120/80 - 75-85bpm range.

Soundguy

 

[N80]

The normal BP range is indeed a moving target. But it is not just an average of the general population anymore. The most recent recommendations come from studying very large groups of people and seeing what happens to them over time (years). What has been discovered is a linear correlation between BP and risk. In other words, the lower the BP, the lower the risk. Of course that is only true down to the point at which the BP is so low that it causes problems. This varies from person to person. A skinny 15 year old girl might tolerate a BP as low as 90/50 whereas most of us 40+ year olds would be a bit lightheaded. In any case, the most recent recommendations have called into question the 'norm' of 120/80 because those in these big cohort studies with BP lower than that had correspondingly lower rates of heart attack and stroke.

 

[RSKY]

Up till two years ago my blood pressure was always on the low side. About 120/65. Suddenly the first of 2006 it shot up to 150/105. The nurses were I worked were very concerned. I visited my family doctor's office and he was not there but the nurse practicioner looked over my records and was also concerned. She put me on some mild medicine and told me to try to think if there was anything different I was eating, drinking, or doing. To make a long story short for various reasons I had taken over the coffee fund at work and had started making a twenty cup percolator full before each break. So I was drinking four or five cups of coffee a day instead of one. I eased off the coffee and Mountain Dew. Started bringing bottles of water to work. And slowly over a six month period my BP lowered to 120/80. I am now breaking the BP pills in half each day and when this bottle is finished I will stop taking them altogether.

So if your blood pressure is high start drinking decaf or at least half caf coffee and cut back on the soft drinks. Also stop covering everything in salt. Then you might get off the pills. I did.

RSKY

 

[Soundguy]

I normally drink a bit of decaf.. but a few times a week i DO have a starbucks coffee. I drink some soda and some tea.. have now switched to decaf tea, and am buying the 0sodium/0 caff sodas.. and drinking a bit more water. Also trying to use a bit less salt. In the last week my lower number has been in the 70-78 range.. and the top number in the 105-132 range.. pulse between 60 and 86

I figure it's not great.. but not dismal either.

I'm quite active, and at a good weight

Soundguy

 

[N80]

So if your blood pressure is high start drinking decaf or at least half caf coffee and cut back on the soft drinks. Also stop covering everything in salt. Then you might get off the pills. I did.

RSKY

You can't argue with success, but I don't think there is any evidence linking caffeine to high blood pressure. Again, if it worked for you that is great since lifestyle modification is the best way to control your BP. But, it is unlikely that others will share your success simply by coming off of caffeine.

Decreasing salt intake has been proven to help though.

 

[Egon]

Tomatoes and no salt is a bummer, believe me!