When to worry about high blood pressure?

[jimbammer]

I am a 23 year old male and am about 100 pounds over weight. I started eating healthy august 1 and I am confident I will be able to keep it up. I have already lost close to 10 pounds. Anyway, should I worry about my blood pressure?

Over the past few weeks I have had my blood pressure taken at those machines that they have at pharamacies and each time my blood pressure was about 160 over 90. That is REALLY high. Right now I am probably eating quite a bit of sodium in my diet. I figured that I would just lose the weight and the high blood pressure would lower as a result of that.

Anyway, should I worry about the blood pressure now or should I just focus on losing the weight without lowering my salt intake?

 

[edco76]

Lose the weight and get in shape.

 

[pliftkl]

Anyway, should I worry about the blood pressure now or should I just focus on losing the weight without lowering my salt intake?

You should absolutely worry about your blood pressure. If you are overweight, then your BP may have been high for a while. I'd remove as much sodium from your diet as you can, continue to get regular exercise, and plenty of water. If your blood pressure isn't down significantly after a week on reduced sodium, you should consider going to your doctor for something to lower it. Your objective at that point would be to do everything you can to get healthy enough to get off of the blood pressure meds.

 

[jimbammer]

I have no insurance so going to the doctor isn't really an option.

 

[KILL KILL]

exercise, eat your veggies, cut out the garbage in your diet, add in the oh so magical fish oil and a multi vitamin, and BAM you'll be right as rain. I don't know why people make it more complicated than it is.

 

[jimbammer]

exercise, eat your veggies, cut out the garbage in your diet, add in the oh so magical fish oil and a multi vitamin, and BAM you'll be right as rain. I don't know why people make it more complicated than it is.

Nice, well I am already doing those things. Basically right now I am eating two things that are high in sodium...ham with my eggs and teriyaki or soy sauce with my stir fries...so I think I am just going to eat more eggs and no ham and try to find a replacement sauce with less sodium. If I do those two things I will be good.

 

[pliftkl]

I have no insurance so going to the doctor isn't really an option.

You should be able to find a clinic where a doctor will see you for BP for less than $100, and a prescription for a generic BP medicine might cost you as little as $5 per week. That's not unachievable even without insurance.

You could also consider starting to take Hawthorn Berry, as some people have seen it drop a few points off of their blood pressure.