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For a while now, I've had fairly high bp. Recently noticing that it's been creeping up pretty high. Don't eat bad at all and obviously train a lot. Been on the higher side since I was in the military, so I'm sure it's stress related, and now being in LE, don't think the effects of breathing techniques will last longer than five minutes .

I'm going to talk to a doctor next week about getting on something mild, wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this type of stuff. I'm only 30, so for years I've been in denial about going on meds thinking I could lower it naturally. Just isn't happening

Any advice is appreciated

Hypertension needs to be treated, the earlier the better. You'll probably get beta blockers, which will lower your heart rate, or ACE inhibitors which basically makes you reuptake less fluid.

Tyr0331 wrote:wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this type of stuff

I do. I've been running high for almost all my life. More or less. You do need to see a doctor to get professional opinion. BUT I wouldn't place sign "Hypertension" on my forehead right away. And I wouldn't jump immediately into meds. I am not saying you don't need that. What I am trying to say is: do you own research, educate yourself, study yourself. Become your own nurse for a while. And make a decision.

Here are few things that helped me.

- Buy a BP devise and take your BP few times/day for a couple weeks.
- Play with your diet: amount of salt, hydration level, quality of food.
- Pay attention on your fluid balance. Measure I/O.
- Note how you respond to different type of training: lifting VS LSS.
- Note how amount/quality of sleep effect your BP.
- Try to take mild herbal remedies such as Valerian root on daily basis for a while.
- Decide if you need to drop some weight.
- Get a journal. Record everything. Analyze.

You might need to get to BP meds. Or you might be able to manage that with different approach on your own. It might be lifetime management. It might be lifetime medication. It might be just few lifetime adjustments.

And few personal points. I run high by the standards as I mentioned before. I feel great with 135/90. I might jump to 150/100 with lack of sleep, stress, poor nutritional choice and depression waves. It usually takes about 15-20 min to bring it down. My magic is: laying down, dimming the lights, taking Valerian root tea, deep slow yoga breathing. Something like that.

My wife runs on the opposite side. She feels awesome with 100/60. She gets lightheaded and sick with 120/80.

Also, LSS might be your best friend. I felt like a superman after running BB last spring. My vascular system worshiped me for a while My BP was about 120/75 for a few months. I am thinking of running Black OP with 1HIC/1E(LSS) in a future. Fun Runs can be good compromise.

Just my 2c, mate. Good luck and stay healthy.

Barkadion wrote:

Tyr0331 wrote:wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this type of stuff

I do. I've been running high for almost all my life. More or less. You do need to see a doctor to get professional opinion. BUT I wouldn't place sign "Hypertension" on my forehead right away. And I wouldn't jump immediately into meds. I am not saying you don't need that. What I am trying to say is: do you own research, educate yourself, study yourself. Become your own nurse for a while. And make a decision.

Here are few things that helped me.

- Buy a BP devise and take your BP few times/day for a couple weeks.
- Play with your diet: amount of salt, hydration level, quality of food.
- Pay attention on your fluid balance. Measure I/O.
- Note how you respond to different type of training: lifting VS LSS.
- Note how amount/quality of sleep effect your BP.
- Try to take mild herbal remedies such as Valerian root on daily basis for a while.
- Decide if you need to drop some weight.
- Get a journal. Record everything. Analyze.

You might need to get to BP meds. Or you might be able to manage that with different approach on your own. It might be lifetime management. It might be lifetime medication. It might be just few lifetime adjustments.

And few personal points. I run high by the standards as I mentioned before. I feel great with 135/90. I might jump to 150/100 with lack of sleep, stress, poor nutritional choice and depression waves. It usually takes about 15-20 min to bring it down. My magic is: laying down, dimming the lights, taking Valerian root tea, deep slow yoga breathing. Something like that.

My wife runs on the opposite side. She feels awesome with 100/60. She gets lightheaded and sick with 120/80.

Also, LSS might be your best friend. I felt like a superman after running BB last spring. My vascular system worshiped me for a while My BP was about 120/75 for a few months. I am thinking of running Black OP with 1HIC/1E(LSS) in a future. Fun Runs can be good compromise.

Just my 2c, mate. Good luck and stay healthy.

I've had high BP for atleast two years now. Noticed it in EMT school when we were taking each other's bp everyday. Stsrted stressing about it and think that made it worse. Now I'm a bigger guy and one of the things the instructors said is that I needed a large cuff to read accurately. Tried that a few times and it was still high. But instead of being 160/100 it would be 150 or so over 90. So either way it's high.
For the last two years I've researched how to get it down. Tried adjusting diet, cutting out caffeine, supplementing with certain things, and every so often had someone at work check it. Usually it's still around 145/90 on a day where I had a normal sleep schedule, nothing crazy pending at work, family life is good at the moment, making all my workouts sessions, and I kind of have an idea what my schedule at work is going to be like for next two weeks. So in my world, that's a low stress environment. This week s*** hit the fan and my chest was kind of tight so I had my partner check it and it was through the roof. So I'm at that point where I know it's stress related

I do have a few combat deployments under my belt so my theory is it might have something to do with my body adapting to being stressed to the max and learning how to operate effectively like that. Somewhere along the line my adrenal glands just don't know when to quit

I did make an appointment with a Doctor and I have been researching different types of meds. My friend is in med school and advises to avoid beta blockers as a daily med since they have higher side effects than losartan or lisinopril. For beta blockers specifically I've looked into propranolol. The goal is to figure this out naturally if possible but bottom line is it's high and I know the outcome of high bp if left untreated

Lots of studies out there in favor of a daily meditation practice to help reduce blood pressure.

I agree with Bark on this, don't be too quick to label yourself with high blood pressure just yet. These meds end up coming with a ton of side effects.

These are some of my thoughts, but they don't take the place of professional medical advice of course:

- Run a Base Building Block for 8-12 weeks. Run only, and stay strictly within the HR parameters. I knocked down my resting heart rate by some 15bpm. There was a corresponding & significant decrease in blood pressure (can't remember what the number was, but I had an annual employment related medical a few weeks post-base).


- Meditate. Studies show transcendental meditation lowers blood pressure significantly and is approved by the American Heart Association as a legit technique for heart health.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 121953.htm

This one's going to seem a little unusual, but if you start digging into it, you'll see it might be having an effect on you. Basically it relates to Vitamin D. Vitamin D can cause arterial calcification in the absence of adequate Vitamin K. One of D's jobs is to shuttle calcium to various areas of the body that need it. Too much of it, or lack of Vitamin K can cause D to shuttle that calcium into the arteries and soft/connective tissue. If you're taking D on a daily basis, or in large amounts, try stopping it for a few weeks. Again, if you dig around you'll see numerous complaints of joint pain, and rapid heartbeat after Vitamin D supplementation. Here's a link to get you started, and I urge you to do some google-fu to find the related scientific studies and reports as well:

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/stop-vitamin-d

I found this out because I started getting sharp joint pains and rapid heartrate after supplementing Vitamin D for a few days straight. My blood pressure went up and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I eventually narrowed it down to the D. It didn't take me long to find others reporting the same symptoms I had. I found out that lack of magnesium can contribute to similar symptoms (D uses up magnesium to operate) as well as the info above relating to calcification in the absence of K. Within 2-3 days of stopping the D it was like someone who had been standing on my chest stepped off. Lost that feeling of being constricted, and the rapid heartrate went away. I tried supplementing with both Mag and K again with the D, but after a few days of build up I'd start getting the same symptoms. Your mileage may vary and it may not be your issue, but you never know. This D/calcification has come up in discussion on the Subreddit as well I'm pretty sure.

If you go the Inderal/Propanolol route, bear in mind those medications deplete COQ10, which is very important to heart health and ATP (energy generation) so you might want to consider supplementing. Actually you might want to consider Q10 now to help with the blood pressure as well.

Good luck and keep us posted on this if you don't mind!

Disclaimer: I am not a physician but I hang out with quite a few in my day job.

1) See your doctor and definitely get a full workup. Hopefully you have a dialed in GP who will spend more than 3 min looking at you and do a full exam and panel.

2) Get checked out for diabetes. There is some interesting research on hyperinsulinemia and its relationship to hypertension.

3) Take a look at some magnesium supplements. I take magnesium glycinate and it is a smooth muscle relaxant and helps with all kinds of things froms sleeping to muscle cramps. I don't think there is an on-label use for it to treat hypertension but you might find it helpful. Your doctor can order a full metabolic panel and get your serum magnesium level checked. Risk of magnesium supplementation is low provided you have healthy kidneys. If you get diarrhea from it, you know you're getting too much.

4) Some people theorize that Vit D deficiency may contribute to development of hypertension and heart disease. My personal thoughts are Vit D is not a magic bullet but if you are deficient you should definitely correct it. Again, your doctor can order a Vit D3 test to check your serum level and easily rule that out as a contributor.

Bottom line: see your doctor, but I would not personally be happy with just a pat on the back and a Ramipril prescription.

The problem with doctors around here is they are always just temporary so you never know who you're going to get when you make an appointment. So even if I get a good one to give me good advice the first time, he might be gone by the time I go in for a follow up and I'm back to square one again. I supplement with vitamin d and magnesium. Reading the post about negative effects of vitamin d, I might cut it out for a while. But I have had blood labs in the past and it's never outside of normal levels. I also take high levels of magnesium glycinate. So what is the proper supplementation protocol? As far as basics, because I hear arguments for and against certain vitamins all the time. I've been on vitamin d for years now and never had kidney stones. And my joints don't hurt anymore than usual. But not saying it can't happen. I eat a lot of grassfed butter which I understand is a good source of K2. I also drink a ton of water and usually sweat out just as much almost every day just at work

I will follow up with what the doctor says. How many of you believe in possible white coat syndrome? I feel my anxiety level go up as soon as they put the cuff on now or just thinking about having high bp

Tyr0331 wrote:The problem with doctors around here is they are always just temporary so you never know who you're going to get when you make an appointment. So even if I get a good one to give me good advice the first time, he might be gone by the time I go in for a follow up and I'm back to square one again. I supplement with vitamin d and magnesium. Reading the post about negative effects of vitamin d, I might cut it out for a while. But I have had blood labs in the past and it's never outside of normal levels. I also take high levels of magnesium glycinate. So what is the proper supplementation protocol? As far as basics, because I hear arguments for and against certain vitamins all the time. I've been on vitamin d for years now and never had kidney stones. And my joints don't hurt anymore than usual. But not saying it can't happen. I eat a lot of grassfed butter which I understand is a good source of K2. I also drink a ton of water and usually sweat out just as much almost every day just at work

I will follow up with what the doctor says. How many of you believe in possible white coat syndrome? I feel my anxiety level go up as soon as they put the cuff on now or just thinking about having high bp

I always come 20min before my physical to seat with closed eyes and do some breathing. My BP changes drastically within that time. I don't know if it is due to white coat syndrome or just trivial anxiety. Anyway that works for me.. 150/95 to 135/85. I take that

Barkadion wrote:

Tyr0331 wrote:The problem with doctors around here is they are always just temporary so you never know who you're going to get when you make an appointment. So even if I get a good one to give me good advice the first time, he might be gone by the time I go in for a follow up and I'm back to square one again. I supplement with vitamin d and magnesium. Reading the post about negative effects of vitamin d, I might cut it out for a while. But I have had blood labs in the past and it's never outside of normal levels. I also take high levels of magnesium glycinate. So what is the proper supplementation protocol? As far as basics, because I hear arguments for and against certain vitamins all the time. I've been on vitamin d for years now and never had kidney stones. And my joints don't hurt anymore than usual. But not saying it can't happen. I eat a lot of grassfed butter which I understand is a good source of K2. I also drink a ton of water and usually sweat out just as much almost every day just at work

I will follow up with what the doctor says. How many of you believe in possible white coat syndrome? I feel my anxiety level go up as soon as they put the cuff on now or just thinking about having high bp

I always come 20min before my physical to seat with closed eyes and do some breathing. My BP changes drastically within that time. I don't know if it is due to white coat syndrome or just trivial anxiety. Anyway that works for me.. 150/95 to 135/85. I take that

I will try that on Monday with some box breathing. But again, at some point if my blood pressure is high regardless of anxiety or not, I think there is a problem. Can't avoid doctors the rest of my life, although it would be nice. But if it's anxiety I should be able to control that through stress relief activities