Blood pressure question, can it be reduced in a week's time?

Ok, I don't know if this is ridiculous or not. My husband is TERRIFIED of doctors. He's one of those people that is convinced that every time he goes to the doctor he'll get some awful news.

Well, today he was at the doctor. We need him physically cleared for immigration purposes (another long story). It was really high, but I know it's because he was ready to pass out from anxiety (150/100). They didn't take it twice, they just said "uh come back in a week"

My question is if he's a sedentary guy who eats like crap, would anyone think if he took the week and cleaned up his act his BP would get lower? I mean he's 23 for crying out loud, we should be able to do this, right? We drank a lot this weekend plus he takes allergy meds regularly. I'm thinking even those two things will help if he eliminates them.

I can't believe I'm asking the equivalent of a blood pressure crash diet.

My blood pressure was SUPER high once and the doctor told me to come back next week. (i was trying to get a refill on my BC, so I NEEDED to get it down)

So what I did (what my mommy told me to do actually) is no caffeine, lots of water, low sodium, no sinus medicine of any kind, etc. Anything that will speed up your heart rate, will raise your blood pressure. So just tell him to RELAX and even have them come back in a few minutes after he is seated (i get nervous too) and it should be lower.

if his BP is high, just get a betablocker ( like atenolol) from you local pharmacy and a bp measurer. start with 1/4 pill and measure morning and evening for 2 days. then see the result. In the UNLIKELY event, his bp is still high, go for 1/2 pill one day and 1/4 the next. Just get him the immigration visa, and then make him eat better.

Thanks for the info. Actually I used to sell beta blockers when I was a drug rep. I don't know if you're in the US, but we can't get them without an Rx. I don't think he needs pharmaceutical intervention, he just needs to get this crap out of his system and calm the hell down at the doctor. I wish they would have taken it twice instead of just making him more nervous, but oh well.

I fully intend on cleaning up his diet, as does he. When he gets stressed, he eats. I know the feeling!

My BP is really low (normal, but much lower than normal) after I exercise.  The last time I had a 2-hr workout, my BP came in at about 100/55.  Normally its in the 120s over 70s.  Maybe he can workout before he sees the doc!

He also obviously has the white coat syndrome, which doesn't help.

Your BP will vary by quite alot during the course of a day. It is affected by the time of day, the amount of activity, your mood, and by medical reasons. For that reason doctors will not make any predictions based on one reading. That's why he asked your BF to come back next week.

If he's afraid of doctors then his anxiety will cause his BP to spike, explaining his high reading.

Things you can do to get it lower: number one, relax. Take deep breaths, meditate, think pleasant thoughts (non-erotic pleasant thoughts, as those can cause your BP to spike as well).

Get your reading done first thing in the morning. It generally starts low, peaks in the afternoon and decreases close to bedtime.

Don't exercise beforehand. Take the elevator to the doctor's office instead of the stairs. Although exercise can cause your BP to lower over time, it will cause a spike during exercise and for awhile afterwards as your body increases blodflow to re-oxygenate your muscles and draw out the lactic acid and co2.

Cut out salt. Cutting out fats and oils will lower your BP as well, but only long-term. It will have virtually no effect in a week. Cutting out salt will have an almost immediate effect (within 3 days anyway).

Drink lots of water. That'll make you pee more and help to flush out the sodium in your bloodstream.

Exercising, especially aerobic/cardio as opposed to strength training, will lower your BP over time as your heart gets more efficient at pumping blood. I'm not sure exactly how much effect it will have in a week, and as mentioned previously, don't exercise just before your reading (I wouldn't exercise the day before my reading personally).

Recent studies have suggested that eating alot of fruit will lower your blood pressure. They're not certain if it's because of something in the fruit, or if it's just because fruit is naturally low sodium, and eating more fruit means that you are eating less of the other high sodium foods.

And that's about it. The only other course is medication, especially "water pills" which lower the sodium in your bloodstream (and also make you pee alot). The problem with pills is that once you start them you can never stop. Doctors are normally loath to start you on pills unless they have several bad BP readings in a row, and have already given you a chance at making the above mentioned lifestyle changes.

The drug stores around here all have automatic BP monitors. If that's the case in your area your BF can take his reading once or twice a day and see what it's like over time. That would be much better than a "snapshot" from the doctors office.

Yeah, I bought him a BP monitor and told him to take it every morning and bring the readings and the monitor back with him on Monday.

Thanks for the replies! I know it's a rather silly question, but we don't want to mess around with immigration!

   Hi!

    Just thought you might like to know another solution. My husband was under a LOT of stress and wound up with readings like you said. He went to a local Family Dr. and discussed it with him. Around here, people recommend garlic for lowering bp, so he asked the Dr. about it-- and the Dr. agreed! He told him to try it, and he bought a quality garlic pill... and it WORKED! It's been no problem since- a few years now- but he watches it regularly, as it will change a bit under pressure, in a rare while... nothing to worry about, though.

   And, he didn't use the garlic long!

    If you try this, and it works for ya'll, it would still be good to keep an eye on it- stress can cause it, and few of us can really avoid STRESS, can we???

   Hope this helps!