I'm in my late 30's and have no immediate family history of high BP and/or heart disease. I exercise 6 days a week with a 80/20 split between strength training and cardio. I'm 6'2, size 34 waist, fairly muscular but could probably stand to lose about 10-12 lbs around the gut. I definitely don't look like the posterchild for high BP.

-Don't drink anymore.
-Never smoked.
-Was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and use a CPAP regularly. Some nights longer than others.
-Diet consist mostly of natural chicken/beef & veggies throughout the week with weekend splurges of TexMex, Chick-Fil-a and etc.
-Lately I've been trying to be more cognizant of salt intake.

Avg BP sitting at my desk is around 144/78 with a resting HR of 50. After laying down for 15 minutes and taking my bp on the floor I can usually get it close to normal around 120/60s.

I've been seeing a cardiologist for several years now. My echo and EKG always look good on my annual visits. My last chest CT looked relatively normal. Labs normal. Stress test normal.

I'm not perfect by any means in regards to my diet, sleep and managing stress, but I also growing frustrated with being on two BP meds at my age after seemingly trying to do everything else right.

Any suggestions? Any recs for a Dr in the greater Houston area?

jjdavis85 said:

---

I'm in my late 30's and have no immediate family history of high BP and/or heart disease. I exercise 6 days a week with a 80/20 split between strength training and cardio. I'm 6'2, size 34 waist, fairly muscular but could probably stand to lose about 10-12 lbs around the gut. I definitely don't look like the posterchild for high BP.

-Don't drink anymore.
-Never smoked.
-Was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and use a CPAP regularly. Some nights longer than others.
-Diet consist mostly of natural chicken/beef & veggies throughout the week with weekend splurges of TexMex, Chick-Fil-a and etc.
-Lately I've been trying to be more cognizant of salt intake.

Avg BP sitting at my desk is around 144/78 with a resting HR of 50. After laying down for 15 minutes and taking my bp on the floor I can usually get it close to normal around 120/60s.

I've been seeing a cardiologist for several years now. My echo and EKG always look good on my annual visits. My last chest CT looked relatively normal. Labs normal. Stress test normal.

I'm not perfect by any means in regards to my diet, sleep and managing stress, but I also growing frustrated with being on two BP meds at my age after seemingly trying to do everything else right.

Any suggestions? Any recs for a Dr in the greater Houston area?

---

I'm in my early 40s, lost 50 pounds a couple years ago, stay very lean and very active, don't drink, and also don't smoke. I'm also on two different BP medications despite all that. No other medical issues

Honestly man, sometimes it just happens. BP meds are pretty side- effect free, and prevent so much potential future chronic disease

Thanks! That's what I'm starting to realize. However, I do feel that if I'm going to being on two meds (which I am currently) that I'd hope to have more normal BP readings.

What bp meds are you on?

amlodipine 5 mg in the mornings + Losartan 25 in the evenings.

Losartan is a good drug and has good data but is generally considered one of the weakest in its class (ARB's). Perhaps your prescriber has good reason to use losartan, but you might ask about the other ARB options.

I don't know your med hx, but why are you not on max dose of either of those? I'm on Losartan myself, and my doc started me on 50mg, then up to 100mg which brought it down to normal.

hows the sleep?

What is your caffeine intake? Stress?

Could definitely improve. I usually get 6-7 hours nightly with the occasional newborn interruptions.

I could definitely scale back. Usually have a pre-workout before I head to the gym in the morning followed up by 2-3 more cups of coffee throughout the day.

jjdavis85 said:

---

I could definitely scale back. Usually have a pre-workout before I head to the gym in the morning followed up by 2-3 more cups of coffee throughout the day.

---

eat and hydrate befdore you go....caffeine is a CNS...not a source if energy

have this to been bad about going to Dr will go shortly.

jjdavis85 said:

---

I've been seeing a cardiologist for several years now. My echo and EKG always look good on my annual visits. My last chest CT looked relatively normal. Labs normal. Stress test normal.

I'm not perfect by any means in regards to my diet, sleep and managing stress, but I also growing frustrated with being on two BP meds at my age after seemingly trying to do everything else right.

Any suggestions? Any recs for a Dr in the greater Houston area?

---

Why are you seeing a cardiologist, getting echoes, EKGs, and chest CTs at your age?

Also, believe it or not, nephrologists are better at hypertension management more so than cardiologists. If you need to see someone to work you up for reasons for elevated blood pressure, I would go to them if you're primary care doc is out of ideas.

That being said, you're on baby doses of both amlodipine and losartan. Additionally, data seems to suggest that being on medication of two different classes at lower doses is overall better than a single drug at higher doses. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC162261/). You can consider upping your dose of losartan, or adding on a diuretic like chlorthalidone.

Your primary care should be able to manage this. I don't think you need a specialist. Now if your BP was in 180+ range despite being on 3-4 maxed out blood pressure medications, then I'd definitely recommend workup for a secondary cause for blood pressure (hormone level checks, kidney ultrasounds, etc).

That being said, I have seen patients get off all blood pressure medications by going about 90% vegan.

What is your BP at your doctor's visit, taken by the nurse on the manual kit? THAT is what you should be focused on. If you're measuring it on an electronic device, chances are it is reading it wrong. Mine shot mine real high and it was wrong. I have a theory that those don't work on the more muscular arms -- mine are and you said you have a more muscled than average build.

Yeah, the cuff needs to be sized appropriately for the arm. If you've got big arms, and they use a smaller cuff on you, then your BP will be inappropriately high. Vice versa as well.

Not a doctor but nobody has mentioned allergies and associated meds so I thought I'd throw it out there. I was about your age when a nurse told me daily Sudafed causes high blood pressure.

Again just wanted to toss it out there.

bigtruckguy3500 said:

---

Yeah, the cuff needs to be sized appropriately for the arm. If you've got big arms, and they use a smaller cuff on you, then your BP will be inappropriately high. Vice versa as well.

---

This. I was getting slightly high readings with a standard size cuff. Normal after switching to large cuff.

Just adding to this thread to not start a new one.

I've been taking Amlodipine for awhile now, only 5mg/day. My BP was routinely 145-150/95-100. Now it's routinely 135/92 or so...still not great. (heart rate always under 60)

I went from working out almost daily (weights/run/walk/stairclimber/pushups/pullups...something) to having to force myself to work out maybe 1x/week.

BUT...back when I was exercising regularly, my bp was still in that 145/95 range. Occasionally better, occasionally worse.

I'm 44, 5'11" 202 lbs. From High school to about 38 (including the heavy running phase of my life) I was 185. Then inched up to about 192-193. And in the last year breached 200 for the first time in my life. The last year or so included getting laid off from a 16 year job, a new job that 'requires' frequent travel/dinners/events/bars...which led to LOTS of drinking and eating out. I've kind of leveled that out now, not drinking nearly as much (stumbling drunk 1x/week, a few drinks 2-3 other nights a week to 2-3 drinks 1, maybe 2 nights/week tops) and being much more disciplined on company trips (just because I'm on the company CC doesn't mean I need apps, steak, sides, dessert, and after dinner drink). My diet is far from perfect but improving.

Sleep is probably my biggest issue. I get maybe 6 consecutive hours of sleep once a week. Normally I go to bed at 11p, toss turn for a couple hours, doze off, wake up, watch tv, read, pee, toss turn, then maybe sleep for a couple hours, then zombie out of bed at 630. All tolled, maybe 4 hours of 'sleep' a night. Or if I do happen to fall asleep, I generally wake up about 430 and never go back to sleep.

Are there any vitamins or supplements that help with BP? Anything other than prescription pills?

I'm going to try to up my exercise and improve my diet more and see where I end up.

Very similar background to OP, but do not take any meds. Been starting to track my BP last couple of weeks after it was pretty high at a routine dentist visit (who's isn't high at the dentist). Been straddling the "elevated" and "stage 1 hyper" so far with a pulse in the mid 60s; I also think elevated BP is just in my family genetics unfortunately.

Beyond anything genetic, my main issue is probably sleep; average maybe 6ish hours a night. I could also do with a little more cardio work if I am honest (in gym 3 days a week for pretty moderate lifting). My main multivitamin is Vervita ReGenerZyme, which is a heart focused vitamin, and will continue that.

I think you've identified a lot of things you can improve on already, and I think you can go further on some of them.

But to your specific question, replacing some of your sodium intake with potassium has been shown to decrease blood pressure. You can buy it premixed, or you can just buy potassium chloride (brand name NuSalt), and just ratio it how you see fit. To preserve taste, start at maybe 75% NaCl to 25% KCl. Then slowly adjust up the KCl to as much as still tastes ok.

Otherwise, no magic supplement or vitamin I'm aware of that will get you off prescription pills like diet/exercise/weight loss will. Especially diet.

Since you mentioned being more cognizant of salt intake, continue to monitor this closely, as well as other aspects of your diet such as sugar intake and overall calorie consumption. Increasing potassium-rich foods like bananas, sweet potatoes, and spinach can also help to lower blood pressure. I feel the pressure as well these days, just because i gave my aids to hearing aid repair and there are some weird things going on in my brain.

Have you tried cutting the caffeine? How long after caffeine are you reading it?