Decaf still has more caffein than green tea. I don’t get to drink green tea. I stick to herbal tea. According to mayor clinic verruca posted, caffein shouldn’t have a long term effect. I can’t explain how else my blood pressure got lower by 20 when I totally stopped caffein. I have a bp monitor at home and also doctors appointment twice a year where they check my blood pressure. It’s been normal for more than 3-4 years since I stopped caffein. Before that I was on med for two years.
@Iglooo maybe you are particularly sensitive to it. Whatever works right?
I suspect that there’s still a lot medical community doesn’t know about. I am also on the lookout for blood sugar level. I am physically active not overweight, etc. Their routine recommendations wouldn’t help.
I drink warm lemon water first thing in the morning and have a banana everyday. No caffeine.
I was initially put on one beta blocker that reduced my heart rate AND also my oxygen saturation rate, requiring me to use supplemental O2. I think it was Toprol. I was switched to a cardioselective beta blocker, zebeta 5mg which just reduces my heart rate and does NOT reduce my O2 saturation. The only effect I’ve noticed of the zebeta is it helps my heart beat a bit slower so I can sleep better at night—70 or 80 beats/minute instead of >100!
My blood pressure was and remains low normal, 95/60 or so.
Did you look at your potassium level in your blood results? Magnesium? If you are doing high amounts of sweaty exercise, you may tolerate a bit extra of these to help your BP.
Also 8 hours of teaching may well not be more than a lot of low effort, right? As you have to talk? When I am doing effort, I can’t talk to anyone. The real magic is happening at the pointy end of effort in exercise. You can’t talk or teach in high effort intervals.
I have read moderate exercise lowered BP. I know that HIIT workouts are good but I have not understood that HIIT is conclusively better for BP. Do you have a source? I like reading about that kind of thing. I think I workout at a moderate intensity some of the time and occasionally high intensity when I do some tabata type stuff with my clients.
Some of it is low intensity for sure. I teach several different kinds of exercise.
I haven’t had blood work yet -I haven’t been to the doctor yet. Will work on that next week. I am not taking any kind of supplement -that is something to look into.
Thanks
Several suggestions. I was diagnosed with hypertension back about 15 years ago. S had a car accident with me in the passenger seat and a much loved boyfriend had just broken up with me. I was a mess, as was my BP. But it gradually came down with medication. I ended up taking lisinopril for about 10 years with no side effects, though I had too high a dose at a point and had trouble with dizziness, but fine after the dose was reduced.
I tried a number of things, all of which helped to a degree. The first was a session with the integrative medicine doctor who does consults with my HMO. Think along the line of Andrew Weil, who has integrative medicine residencies for physicians to follow in his footsteps. Supplements he advised included COQ10, fish oil, and magnesium separate from calcium. Exercise, of course. The DASH diet, which is a produce based diet. Low sodium diet, though it is a percentage of the population that is sodium sensitive, not everyone. There is a breathing technique, which slows the exhale and reduces BP, mentioned in this article. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/stress-raising-your-blood-pressure-take-a-deep-breath-201602159168 What finally got me off medication was a regular meditation practice. Meditation is best practiced in a group setting, but there are good meditation apps these days. Meditation is just sitting on a cushion and emptying the mind…but it is a life long practice, and hard to keep up alone for some of us.
Know that ibuprofen and other NSAIDS can increase BP in some people.
Taking medication is not the worst outcome. The worst outcome is stroke and heart or kidney disease caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure. Taking that small, and usually cheap pill does not mean you have lost the lottery. It means you are increasing your chances for a long and healthy life.
What dosages of CoQ10 and magnesium were recommended?
I’ve been on BP meds for years, watch my diet, no caffeine, little salt and my BP is still sometimes higher than I’d like, especially with the new guidelines. Dr just recently increased my dosage, so I’ll see how that goes - too soon to tell yet, plus I’m dealing with some stressful situations. My family history/genetics don’t help.
shellfell, for some of us, genetics are destiny, but your efforts are useful, regardless, in keeping doses low. He said there was no specific recommendation for a CoQ10 dose. I always got what was least expensive, so a lower dose. That was a number of years ago. I still take it. There was a certain learning curve on the magnesium, as magnesium is the active ingredient in milk of magnesia, if you get my drift. These days I split the pills in half to avoid that side effect. There are two forms of oral magnesium on the market, and one may absorb better. I haven’t researched it, though suppose I should.
Yes, greatlakesmom, I’m familiar with the unwelcome side effects of magnesium so I’ll start with a lower dosage and work my way up if necessary. Thanks.
I take 100 mg of COQ-10 because my doctor recommended it as making the Lipitor which I take for cholesterol work more efficiently. The Lipitor significantly dropped my choloesterol and I still very careful about what I eat. A few years ago when my cholesterol was first high, around 238 I had dropped it myself sixty points by eliminating red meat, cheese and egg yolks but it did creep back up and harder to get it down. Giving up meat as really easy. Now I eat meat very sparingly… a hot dog on 4th of July, a steak on the grill once or twice a summer, brisket for the holidays. Much harder to give up cheese, especially if you enjoy a slice of pizza every now and then or want to make chicken or eggplant parm for dinner.
CoQ10 can interact with anticoagulation meds, according to some reports I’ve read.
Any recommendations for a meditation practice? My docs are all pushing me hard to work on relaxation and meditation.
If you’re taking any kind of medication, it’s a good idea to talk with your doctor about any dietary supplement you are considering. There are a lot of possible interactions, as well as some instances where having the medication work properly is so crucial that the doctor may not want you to mess around with other things even if there’s no proof of an interaction.
This is from NIH. It may be a little simplistic for CC readers, but it makes the point: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/know-science/how-medications-supplements-interact
My Mum was very fit and walked a lot. Rarely went to the doctor. One time she was visiting and we decided to take our blood pressure in the store. Hers was incredibly high - I’m thinking in the mid 250s on the upper number. I insisted she go to the doctor as soon as she got home to England. Her doctor was dubious when she told him why she was there but sure enough her BP was sky high - he always referred to her as the lady who stuck her arm in a hole in the wall in America and saved her life (you don’t see those take your own BP machines in England). She had no symptoms.
I have high BP and take lisiniprol. No side effects (unlike my diabetes meds!)
I’m counting my blessings here. I had a pre-op physical…and my BP was 110/60.
Mine has never been that low, even on meds.
Wow, @swimcatsmom, 250s is sky-high for the upper # in BP! Thank goodness she saw her MD and got it treated!
When I was a trainer at a gym we had a client with a 250 reading. We would not let him workout. He argued that his BP ran abnormally high and his doctor was aware. His doctor had to submit a release to the gym and he was allowed to workout
I may be misremembering - it was over a decade ago. But 250 is what sticks in my head - I know it was high enough I was really shocked and worried she was going to have a stroke or something