May 27, 2001 04:36 AM
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Over two years ago during my annual medical check up, I was informed that my blood pressure was too high. The Doctor had me come back after another week to have it checked again. It was still too high, so he recommended going on blood pressure medicine. I have always been in good health and felt great, exercised, ate well so could not understand why I would have high blood pressure.
Being as I was 75 years old, they informed me that usually people as they get older have high blood pressure. I was not that well informed on this, so I agreed to try the medication. What surprised me in reading all the information that came with this medicine was all the side affects. After taking the medicine for over a week, I began to have most of the side affects they mentioned. At times I felt I was having panic attacks. I felt nervous, light headed and sometimes out of breath.
I started reading up in my medical books all about high blood pressure and found it could be caused by all sorts of things, especially food, being over weight and smoking(I don't smoke). It also suggested getting a home monitor and check your own blood pressure at different times of the day. Being my own doctor, I decided to take this path, bought a digital blood pressure machine. I stopped taking the medication, which was against the doctors orders, but I needed to find out for myself.
After three months, when my Doctor wanted me to come back, I informed him of what I did. I also told him I refused to take anymore medication. I told him I would monitor this myself for the next year and see if I could find out just what was causing my blood pressure.
During the next year I checked my blood pressure three times a day and could tell just when it was the highest. I then kept track of what I had eaten and noted maybe what made it go up. After a few months I had it narrowed down to caffeine, salt and chocolate. I did go on a diet and got my weight down and that seemed to help as well.
The next year my first Doctor had moved and now I had a new Doctor. I informed her of my findings and she wanted to check my blood pressure monitor to see if it was fairly accurate. She also wanted me to bring in my recording notebook and list of things I had done such as after my exercise or different meals. I will be bringing in this chart during my check up coming up next month.
I have my blood pressure down to 123/78 in the mornings and sometimes up to 137/83 later on in the afternoon. It jumps considerable after exercise as up to 148/90. So I believe this is my normal blood pressure for my age.
This all happened by a change in my diet. The biggest things I needed to do was to start reading all cans, boxes and soups to check on salt content. You have to be careful as all sodium may not be listed. I use a variety of spices and Mrs. Dash seasonings that have no salt. I worked up my own sauces to use on meats and vegetables that have no salt. I make my own salad dressings and use only fresh or frozen vegetables.
One thing that I discovered that caffeine affected my blood pressure. That meant all coffee, tea, most soft drinks, and chocolate. I had to go to decaf coffee and tea, gave up on all soft drinks. I make my own drinks such as fruit juices and lemonade, plus I drink plenty of water. It was the chocolate that was the hardest to control, I am being very careful here. I find it takes lots of will power, but if it keeps me off the blood pressure medicine I will be satisfied.
I believe Doctors find it is too easy to prescribe medication without finding out the reasons for the problem. It seems as long as we Senior Citizens are on Medicare they think it is much easier to just prescribe more medicine. For the cost of my blood pressure monitor which was$30.00 the same as one month of the prescribed medication.
Choosing healthy food is not a difficult thing, with all the choices we have in our grocery stores. It just may take a little longer while you are shopping to check out just what is included in the ingredients. Diet foods either frozen or otherwise may not be the thing for you, so check carefully. YOUR HEALTH IS WORTH PROTECTING FOR A LONG AND ACTIVE LIFE!
