Helped BP

B

Berries

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I thought I would post this as a public service.

My BP had been high. I averaged 140/95, taking a reading twice a day, over a few weeks. It would've been a lot higher, as my family members without medication were up at around 170/100, but I became a vegan, added exercise, and it went down to to the above.

I need to renew by medical, so I wanted to get those numbers lower, without medication. I tried a lot of different foods, but what ended up working for me were daily smoothies with mixed berries. I have no idea why, but a cup of berries in my smoothie has helped, and now I average 125/85, using same method as above.

Just thought I'd let you guys know. Can't guarantee it'll help you, but in the worst case, you'll enjoy some berries!

(And no, I am not a berry farmer!)
 
I'm on BP medication (runs in my family :() and as long as it's under control the FAA is cool with it. Wish I could have it under control using your method though, much better way for sure.
 
mscard88 said:
Huh? Explain please?
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The sodium/potassium ratio can affect blood pressure. If someone is potassium deficient or has high sodium then adding potassium to the diet is a good thing.
 
Clark1961 said:
The sodium/potassium ratio can affect blood pressure. If someone is potassium deficient or has high sodium then adding potassium to the diet is a good thing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Clark for the explanation. Just had a banana and some strawberries as a matter of fact. Now where's that cantaloupe....
 
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Exercise helps me the most, all out, full bore max HR beat downs at least 4 times a week. That's me, a more sane workout, 3 times plus a week would probably work too. Next is diet and keeping my weight down. The most important thing in diet for me? Simple carbs, I severely limit them. Then salt, I limit that too. I take medicine, runs in my family too. Before I got on the exercise kick the meds were only marginally effective and the doc wanted to keep adding more, exercise fixed that.

Don't be afraid of the BP meds, they really are nothing and don't read the side effects or go onto forums where people complain about them. A doc a while back wanted me to take a new med. I told him I had read about the side effects and didn't want to do it. He snapped at me and said "those are other people's side effects, not yours. Take the med, you need it, if you start having problems we'll deal with it." I've been on that one for 10 years, no issues.

Finally with these issues, cholesterol is usually a problem too. I had high cholesterol in my 30's, numbers approaching 400 total. My buddy had similar numbers at that age. I started a statin then at the urging of my doc. His doc urged him too, but he refused. 20 years later, around age 50 he had a heart attack, widow maker artery blocked something like 98%. His cardiologist said he was about 12 hours from a massive heart attack and death. They stented him and he made a full recovery, luckily he had pretty much no damage. He takes a statin now.
 
In the past few months, I've been eating considerably better than I had been the previous years. I'm not overweight or have any serious medical issues. It's just a personal thing. However, for the first time in my life, I had a 108/61 reading yesterday at my medical. I have never scored low. It's always been at 120/80. Always. The only two things I've been doing differently are my eating and regular exercising on a total gym at home.

I'm more of a couch potato type of guy.

Not to preach here, but diet and exercise really do wonders for getting yourself back on track.

I'm about 30% through this audio book right now. Great stuff. If anyone's interested:

the-china-study.jpg
 
First, I'm not a doctor, (but I was a paramedic for 12 yrs) so take my ramblings with a grain of salt. (And equal parts potassium.)

I was on BP med for 18 yrs. (Atenolol, a beta blocker) At one point, my weight was up to 340lbs, my sugar at 150, and my cholesterol was sky high. They wanted to put me on both a statin and a oral blood sugar medicine. I accepted the statin, but refused the oral blood sugar med, opting to loose weight instead. 6 months later, I was 60lbs lighter, my sugar was normal, and my cholesterol was normal. I'm down to 260 now, and slowly working my way down to 220. I stopped the statins (against medical advice) because so much evidence is coming out that they are not what they claim to be, and I was having a lot of unpleasant side effects. My cholesterol is up, but still within the "normal" range. I also recently stopped taking the beta blocker for my BP for similar reasons, (I tapered down over several months first) and my BP is averaging around 135/95. That's a little on the high side, but not high enough to justify meds, especially a beta blocker. (Another category of meds that was once considered "safe" but is now considered "bad".)

For me, proper sleep, regular exercise, lots of water, decent diet, and staying away from sugar is what's done it. Seriously, "sugar" is the enemy we should all be fighting, not fat and cholesterol. (Hell, your body needs both.) Sugar is killing us in more ways than the health care industry is willing to admit. Do some research and you'll see.

These days, I don't trust any doctor. I listen to my body. Medically, the only thing I need a doctor for is to get orders for tests that I can't get on my own. Trauma, however, is a different story. The best treatment for that is to not get injured.

Like me wife says, "Better to not get sick."
 
My wife has almost scary low BP (at least scary to me!) and also very low potassium ... low enough that her doc prescribed potassium supplements after she tried all the high potassium foods and non-RX supplements that had little effect for her. So, what's the point to my post? No idea ... except somebody said "potassium" :)
 
gkainz said:
My wife has almost scary low BP (at least scary to me!) and also very low potassium ... low enough that her doc prescribed potassium supplements after she tried all the high potassium foods and non-RX supplements that had little effect for her. So, what's the point to my post? No idea ... except somebody said "potassium" :)
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My wife's BP is consistently 90/60 or some variation thereof. To say it surprises people would be an understatement.
 
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