I have suddenly this week been suffering from bad headaches, on Friday I decided to visit my hospital to check my bp, to my surprise my BP was 160/91, doctors gave me some tablets. Took it and later it went down, my BP was down all the next day, today I check it again it's gone up, with headaches. Doctor gave me more tablets and sent home to rest.
im wondering why my BP would be so high and also if it's because of the menopause or stress which I've had a lot from the past few years.
I believe it's because of both reasons, hormonal changes will definitely change your blood pressure, and for sure your anxiety too.
I strongly recommend to do exercises.. and do it gradually if you are not sports player. It will help you a lot to be healthier in the future... especially after menopause.
You didn't say how old are you, what's your weight and hight? Any other medical history?
BP fluctuates all day. They should not medicate what might be a one off. You either need a 24 hour monitor or checks over a period of time. You could buy yourself a BP monitor to check it under stress free surroundings at home.
Hi Kadija, If you're going through the menopause I'm guessing you're 50+, which is probably borne out by the 1966 in your user name. If that's the case, 160/90 isn't all that high for your age, though it's a bit higher than it should be. It's certainly not high enough to cause a headache. High BP normally only causes noticeable symptoms when it gets to around 200/140, and not always even then. My BP is sometimes as high as 160/90 in my GPs surgery, but he's just keeping an eye on it and hasn't prescribed any pills yet.
I think it's more likely that stress is causing your headaches, and this is being increased by worrying unnecessarily over your BP.
I'm wondering whether you're taking HRT. Some women report headaches when on it, but that can usually be sorted by changing to a different pill. There are a lot of different formulas available.
I agree with poster Noni below. You can also do a lot to bring your BP down a bit by lifestyle changes - reducing smoking if you're a smoker, losing a bit of weight if you're overweight, doing regular, gentle exercise, and cutting down sharply on salt and carbs, especially sugar (which includes sugary drinks).
Try not to worry so much. Your BP really isn't very high for someone your age.
I can't publish the link here but look up: The Salt Fix by Dr James DiNicolantonio, to be published by Piatkus Books on June 6.
You need salt and a low salt diet is bad for you.
Dear Lily
thanks for the reply, I am 50 yrs old, I weigh 70 kg, 5ft4 inch, my GP says I should lose about 5 kg, I have been this weight for around 6yrs, before I was 60 kgs.
i have also been under a lot of stress lately as I'm managing a small tourist resort. A new challenge for me, I am also in peri menopause, start to miss a period every other month. I don't know if this is giving me headaches? It's only this week that my blood pressure have shot up, I do have an omron blood pressure monitor and have been checking it for the last 3 months and it was 110/70 and I was shock to see this week my BP have risen so much and also accompany headaches which is not something I normally get, I also have a sort of sore throat after a common cold. I am going to my GP this morning to have a full blood tests, as my mum and dad have high blood pressure and cholesterole, ever since I can remember, mum also have diabetes. So I want to get checked out for other problems as I have been relatively healthy all my life until this week. As the hospital doctor says I need to take the BP tablets for the rest of my life....
thanks for the support and advise.
I am not on HRT.
i work a lot outdoors and eat fairly healthy, I live on a tropical island and we use a lot of coconut milk in our foods. I must say I do not exercise regularly but I work mainly outdoors which makes me sweat a lot. I also get stress out very easily and do t take problems very well. My partner is also not very supportive and gives me a hard time with my menopause symptoms. I have not been taking my situations very well lately and feel despair feel down most of the times.
I read an article by this guy on the salt subject and was most interested as my 86 yr old husband piles salt on his plate every meal [he likes the crunch factor ...!] and has low to normal blood pressure and always has had. Meanwhile I used to eat plenty of salt but due to high BP I cut it down drastically as per NHS guidelines and now never add it to my plate. It hasn't made the slightest scap of difference to my BP!
I gather some scientist did some experiments on gm rats and published it. I couldn't help but draw parallels with the dodgy data regarding cholesterol. ie. force feeding rabbits with a high fat diet and wondering why they all died.
If you are a scientist it seems you can stand up and say whatever you like and be believed however dodgy the evidence.
I do agree with you up to a point Jane, but individual differences have to be taken into account too.
For example, my father smoked 50 cigarettes a day from the age of 15 and died a "textbook" death from lung cancer at age 67. My great-aunt Edie (other side of the family so different genes) smoked 60+ per day all her adult life and lived to 91, dying of old age and vascular dementia. My mother too was a lifelong heavy smoker - though not at the same heroic level as her aunt - and died at 89, also of old age and vascular dementia.
However, one cannot infer from the above that smoking doesn't cause cancer. One might even infer that it contributed to the vascular dementia suffered by both my mother and her aunt, since smoking negatively affects the peripheral circulation.
It's also worth remarking that three of my father's four siblings, his father and his father's twin brother all died prematurely of different cancers - some only in their 40s. All were heavy smokers. My father's eldest brother - the only one to bear no physical resemblance to their father - also smoked like a chimney and died peacefully at around 90 with no sign of either cancer or dementia. This incidentally opens up yet another can of worms - the question of the generalised "oncogene", which most scientists still dismiss.
It's my understanding that hypertension isn't just one condition, but that there are several different causes. This means that not everyone's BP can be brought down by reducing salt. There is, however, a lot of evidence that it works in some cases, so it's always worth a try.
The cholesterol/st@tin question (I'm trying to avoid being taken down!) doesn't really have much to do with this argument. It's a different kettle of fish, being a peculiarly anglo-saxon scandal. I left the UK 40-odd years ago, having worked there as a nurse, and one of my former nursing colleagues tells me that UK doctors still routinely test only for total cholesterol, without breaking out HDL (the good guys) and LDL. Now, it's been known for a long time - well, outside of the English-speaking world anyway - that the important factor is the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL. The lower this is, the better - regardless of the actual figures. My total cholesterol is about 50% over the limit, and my LDL is high too, but my HDL even more so. If I lived in the UK or the US, my doctors would be pushing maximum doses of potentially harmful drugs. Since I live in continental Europe, it's my very satisfactory ratio of <3:1 that's taken into account, and my GP never suggests cholesterol medication.
Hi kadja I also went through a time were BP shot up but instead of shoving me straight onto meds my Dr told me to do a wide range of BP readings over a week and see how it went, it came back down to normal after a couple of days and can still go up if I go DR's LOL white coat syndrome has been diagnosed, I am told to check it every couple of days and see how it is, I did it this morning 120/78 first one and 116/76 second that's good enough for me, u need to do checks after sitting quite for about 5 mins and do 3 in morning and 3 in afternoon and see average, also keep a BP diary and see how it goes, I think its a bit quick to medicate on one or two readings but what can I say about DR's medication practices
Hi Jane, As my earlier post got taken down, I sent it to you by private message. It's quite safe to open it. PMs via this site don't carry viruses and don't expose the email address of either party.
Hello Lily,
Your story about smoking was really interesting :-)
I'm a student nurse too, and I want to know, why doctor wouldn't prescribe cholesterol medication?
Well Noni, as I said in my post, modern thinking is that it's not the overall cholesterol level that's important, but the relationship between "good" HDL and "bad" LDL. As you've probably heard in your studies, it's LDL that clogs up the arteries and HDL that clears away the plaque. Of course, it's more complicated than that, but I'm simplifying it. Look up "atherosclerotic index". It's a fairly new concept, and one that seems to have been adopted in some countries but not others.
My question would be rather why doctors would prescribe cholesterol medication in cases where the atherosclerotic index is satisfactory, regardless of actual levels. Statins reduce HDL and LDL equally, so don't change the index, which is the more important factor.
Noni, rather more to the point is Why would they prescribe cholesterol medication. Everyone needs cholesterol for the functioning of every cell in our bodies.
As a student nurse you are probably indoctrinated by the NHS guidelines regarding cholesterol? It's a dirty word and I believe the attitude of the medics in this country is totally out of date. NICE lowered the QRisk threshold from 20% to 10% overnight without justifying the reason.
As Lily says it's the cholesterol ratio that matters most not the total amount.
I know I get on my high horse about this but as a healthy 74 yr old [albeit with controlled hypertension] I have been offered the cholesterol lowering tablets and refused them, my dr when I asked said if she were me she wouldn't take them either. Why would I risk muscle problems thanks to them? What good would they do?
My GP probably in his 50's has a family disposition for high cholesterol and takes a statin. Unlike me they have not caused him muscle pain and he is still an active runner.