<p>OK…I’m sorry to digress here…but I just HAVE to mention that the ads on CC are getting a little spooky. A natural blood pressure reducer came up while browsing this thread…(respirate…looks interesting). A certain type of jeans for older “out of shape” women came up when I was browsing “Dressing Young”. Now I call that target marketing for sure… </p>
<p>Anyway, to the OP, my good friend had high blood pressure, which she has controlled effectively with her diet. Her favorite book? The DASH diet. I think you’ll find it very helpful.</p>
<p>I think label reading is something that everyone should do. We started “reading” labels a couple years ago when my glucose, my husband’s glucose and one of my son’s glucose all rose into the 90s in the same year. Wow, salt and sugar are just horrific in processed foods. The salt thing we’ve lived with for decades (and yes, hot sauces are always on our table), but the sugar content was amazing. We were shocked how much is in store orange juice and cereals that are “not kid cereals.” Myy 15 year old is the “label reader” and continually points out things in the cupboard that are excessively high. Fortunately there are good substitutes for all those processed foods high in salt and sugar that are super easy to make. Good luck, sounds like you’ve charted a great course. Green Bean caserole you can make by making a milk based roux sauce with saute mushrooms and onion and add some sour cream or buttermilk for taste which is lower in sodium than cans of soup…alittle more work than dumping the can, but just as tasty.</p>
<p>toneranger, Thanks for posting the link to the study linking cinnamon to a reduction in blood pressure. I didn’t know that!</p>
<p>I’ve long used cinnamon on my orchids because of its anti-microbial properties. It’s a great natural preventative for orchid ailments such as bacterial rot and fungus.</p>
<p>Mom2, your son needs a cardiac work-up. There’s a good possibility there is either something wrong with the pump or with the plumbing and you should find out what it is. Treating the hypertension without finding out the cause just doesn’t make sense in an otherwise healthy young person. (Which isn’t to say treating it doesn’t make sense–it does–but the primary cause must be established.) Many problems are hereditary and if you’ve got a father with CHF that’s a strong reason to suspect a problem with the plumbing.</p>
<p>I see this conversation has gone toward salt only. Is there a history of high blood pressure in your family? Do you know if relatives are salt sensitive? I ask because history is the best predictor. </p>
<p>A high systolic reading in an older person indicates the heart is working harder, which tends to be mean hardening of the arteries, thickening of the ventricle - classic heart disease. But in a kid? It might be internalized stress coupled with family disposition to high blood pressure. Is your kid overweight? Does your kid exercise? </p>
<p>Avoiding salt is one thing but often the best way to attack systolic pressure is stress relief, including such basics as walking or relatively low intensity exercise carried on for a while - like 40 minutes of moderate work that keeps the heart rate below anaerobic levels (like 40-60% of max). Yoga or meditation helps. Some people believe that not eating too many carbs helps but the evidence for that is weak.</p>
<p>You didn’t mention how high the bp has been. I assume they did a chest x-ray and that it was normal, that they checked for basics like murmurs and whether he has a bicuspid valve*. If things don’t get better, talk about getting an echo of the heart in motion.</p>
<p>*My dad had this. The aortic valve has 3 leaves but a random assortment of people, mostly tall and thin, have 2. This forces the heart to pump harder and that’s bad for the valve, the aorta, etc. They can almost always hear this with a stethoscope. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to alarm you. Tick off the physical causes, connect them with family history and that gives you the context. If it’s merely borderline hypertension that’s likely essential - genetic - then exercise and diet should help some but be aware for the long term. Odds are fairly good that, no matter what, a person with borderline hypertension at a young age will need medication later on. The good news is the stuff works, most of the drugs are easily tolerated and they are associated with longer life (though not as much as statins are).</p>
<p>We do have a family history of heart disease. Son is slim (6’4", 190), fit, and exercises (runs for fun). You would not look at him and think heart disease or high blood pressure. Also, he doesn’t understand what stress is. Kid is a puddle. Not Type A at all. </p>
<p>So far it’s the docs who have only talked about salt. We’re seeing the pediatrician later this week, and I’ve contacted the cardiologist that we saw when he had a heart murmur discovered two years ago.</p>