The Normal Blood Pressure For Men – How I Achieved It.

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Frank

If you’ve read my about me page you will know a little about why I set up this site
about normal blood pressure for men. But in this post I want to share my personal,
genuine journey from hypertension to normal in a very short time.

( Click Here to see the program that finally got me down to normal blood
pressure.)

When I was 40, almost 25 years ago, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure
following a routine medical check. Follow up checks confirmed the diagnosis and I
was officially hypertensive. At that stage my blood pressure readings were around
165/97, pretty high for my age.

My doctor put me on blood pressure medication, settling on Amlodipine and
Bendroflumethiazide as the best combination for me, after trying various other
pills and combinations.

Even taking the blood pressure tablets my pressure readings were anything
between 140/90 and 131/85 within a little either way. Higher than the 120/80 that
is now the recognised normal blood pressure for men, but my doctor said that was
acceptable on balance.

That remained the situation until a few weeks ago when I was taking my  pills one
morning and realised that I had been taking them for almost a quarter of a
century. I then started to wonder about the effects of taking blood pressure pills
for so long.

Especially as my original doctor had told me that there was no cure for high blood
pressure and I would be on medication for the rest of my life.

Now, after 25 years with the prospect of having to take pills for maybe another 20
or so I was increasingly concerned, so I set about trying to find an alternative
treatment for high blood pressure on the net.

There are a LOT of blood pressure remedies out there as I’m sure you know. Very
confusing, and many of them very plausible. Now I cannot tell you why, it’s just
one of those things, but I was drawn to something called The Natural Blood
Pressure Program by a chap called Christian Goodman.

OK to cut to the chase, I read what he had to say on his site and bought the
program. For all you sceptics out there here’s a screenshot of the download
page.download page

I have to say that upon downloading the program I was initially disappointed. I had a skimpy 13 page report and three mp3 files. I read through the report in about 10 minutes flat thinking “this won’t work, it’s too simple. I’m going to get my money back”.

But Christian says in the report at one stage “At worst, you can do it just to prove me wrong”. So, I put the mp3′s onto my player and gave it a go. You don’t actually have to use the mp3′s by the way, but it is recommended, and I certainly found it the easiest way to do the program.

Within two days (yes really) my blood pressure had gone down to 129/83, the best
it had been for a while.

At the end of a fortnight it had settled down to just about the perfect normal
blood pressure for men of 120/80, within a point or two either way.

(Click Here to see the product I’m talking about)

Like most long term hypertensives I have my own monitor to check my blood
pressure at home. If you check the picture to the left here, my bpthis is a shot of my reading taken this morning before I wrote this post. You can see it’s 121/79, and this is not a particulary good day. It’s usually a bit lower.

The most time this program takes up is 30 minutes a day. That gets the best results, but you can tailor it to suit you. The beauty of it is that once you have reduced your blood pressure you don’t have to keep doing the program. Apparently it’s a permanent cure!

Having said that, I still do it two or three times a week just to be on the safe
side. Especially as guess what? My sceptical Doctor is so impressed he took me off
one of my blood pressure tablets two weeks ago, and says he will take me off the
other one if the improvement is maintained.

I’m not the sort of person that goes overboard on stuff, but I can honestly say this
program has changed my life for the better, and I’m now looking forward to a life
with normal blood pressure and no pills.

P.S.

Update, 19th June 2011. I was 65 last week and my doctor has taken me off all blood pressure medications. What a great birthday present!

Click Here to go to The Natural Blood Pressure Program official site

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Checking your blood pressure levels at home

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Frank

Why would you want to check your blood pressure levels at home, and how do you
do it?

Well, apart from the convenience, there is a pretty decent medical reason for
checking your own blood pressure. When your Doctor first suspects that you may
have hypertension you will probably notice that he/she has you come back maybe
every few days or so to check again.

This may seem excessive, but there is an explanation (isn’t there always). Firstly
it’s to make sure your blood pressure results are consistent, and secondly to
ensure that if your pressure levels are raised that it’s not caused by “white coat
syndrome.”

It may sometimes be called something else but my doctor used that term when he
explained it to me, as it is something that I suffer from. In simple terms it means
that your blood pressure can go up just by the fact of being in a Doctor’s surgery
and having your readings taken there. It’s well recognised and very common.

Doctor or Nurse it didn’t matter in my case, I always had elevated blood pressure.
So I was loaned a blood pressure monitor by the practise so I could check it at
home in my own environment.

Also the best time (I was told) to check my blood pressure was first thing in the
morning, at rest, before the stresses and strains of the day had kicked in, as that
apparently is your normal blood pressure.

It makes sense when you think about it. Not only may you have white coat
syndrome pushing up your readings, but as in my case at the time you may also
have had a stressful journey to the surgery. I’m actually amazed that anyone
gives a normal blood pressure reading when they go to their doctor.

Anyway, back to my own case. I took the monitor home and took my readings each
morning for two weeks. The actual process is very easy. Twenty five years ago
when I was going through this most doctors were still using the old fashioned
sphygmomanometer to check blood pressure, and lots still do.

But even then, and certainly now, there were the home check machines which just
involves placing your arm in the cuff and pressing a button. The machine does it
all, inflating and deflating the cuff, taking the pressure and displaying it on an
LCD display. These machines are now so accurate that many doctors use them as
a matter of course.

So at the end of the two weeks I went back to my doctor with the piece of paper
with all the readings on. There is always a little variation of course when you take
blood pressure readings but my results were averaging at around 30 points below
the systolic readings in the surgery.

Unfortunately I was still nowhere near the normal blood pressure for men. I was in
stage two hypertension in fact, and I was started on a regime of blood pressure
medication.

The point is that you probably won’t really know if you have a blood pressure
problem unless you have checked it in your own home environment. If your doctor
doesn’t suggest it, make sure you do.

I ended up buying my own blood pressure monitor (very reasonable) which has
given me excellent service for many years, although I have solved my
hypertension problem it’s still nice to be able to check.

..

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Some Of The Effects Of High Blood Pressure

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Frank

The effects of high blood pressure, if not controlled, can be considerable. It is estimated that as many as a third of adults in the western world have elevated blood pressure, with that figure rising to nearly threequarters of the population over the age of 75.

Having hypertension dramatically increases the risk of cardiovascular problems such as angina, strokes, heart attack, heart failure. Kidney damage/failure, and sight impairment, up to and including blindness.

The figures do not make comfortable reading. People with uncontrolled high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease, six times more likely to have congestive heart failure, and seven times more likely to have a stroke.

Current medical thinking now links hypertension with some forms of dementia and cognitive impairment. Due to blood flow to the brain being blocked by arterial damage caused by high blood pressure.

It is thought that having untreated high blood pressure in middle age, whilst not causing any outward symptoms at the time, increases the risk of dementia later in life.

The normal blood pressure for men is 120/80, within a point or two. A great incentive to get to and sustain this figure, is the likelihood of erectile dysfunction caused by high blood pressure.

The resulting atheriosclerosis and decreased bloodflow to the penis making it difficult to get and maintain an erection.

As if that lot wasn’t enough, blood pressure is a known cause of osteoporosis (loss of bone density) by means of leaching excessive amounts of calcium into the urine, which is then eliminated. The resulting brittle bones are then easily fractured or broken,

How about this little catch-22, courtesy of elevated blood pressure. Sleep apnea occurs in over 50% of sufferers, giving rise to the medical profession now thinking that hypertension is a cause. Also, lack of proper sleep due to  sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure.

All in all more than enough reasons to check it out, and if you don’t have normal blood pressure (around 120/80) find a method of lowering it that works for you.

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Causes Of High Blood Pressure

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Frank

The causes of high blood pressure is a bit of a contentious issue. That is to say that although it is generally agreed that there can be many things that can lead to hypertension it can hardly ever be narrowed down to one single definitive cause.

This is complicated by the fact that high blood pressure symptoms are practically non existent, and this is what makes it such an insidious condition. You don’t usually know anything about it until it’s picked up on say a routine check at your doctor’s.

You may rarely, if you have very high blood pressure, or it rises very quickly, suffer headaches, vision problems, or even fits or backouts. But in the vast majority of cases you will not know you have blood pressure problems at all.

Having said that here are a few of the main known causes of high blood pressure. Primary hypertension is when you have no one definitive cause for your condition, and that is indeed the vast majority of cases, around 95%.

Contributory factors in these cases are smoking, being overweight, alcohol consumption, taking little or no exercise, and diet. There is also a genetic connection, and high blood pressure is known to run in families. In my own case both my parents had the condition.

A very small percentage of people (around 5%) with high blood pressure have what is known as secondary hypertension. In these cases the condition can be related to a known cause, the most common of which are kidney disease, endocrine disease (leading to hormone increase or decrease which affects blood pressure), narrowing of the aorta or the arteries leading to the kidneys.

Other known causes of secondary hypertension are steroids, the contraceptive pill, and pregnancy. The last two obviously affecting women.

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Useful Information About Blood Pressure Medication

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Frank

There are many types of blood pressure medication.Once you have been diagnosed with hypertension you will probably be put on a regime of one or more of these.

It is common to take more than one kind of blood pressure tablets as they work in different ways to lower your blood pressure. Here is a run-down of the main types:

Calcium chanel blockers. This type of medication works by relaxing the artery walls, making the artery wider, which has the effect of lowering blood pressure.

ACE inhibitors. These work in a different way by adjusting the hormone levels in the body that normally affect blood pressure.

Angiotensin receptor blockers. Called ARB’s for short, these also work by controlling hormones that affect blood pressure, but different ones.

Thiazide diuretics. These medications work by helping the body eliminate excess fluid build up, which is one of the commonest causes of high blood pressure.

The above four are now the favoured blood pressure medication used by the medical profession, having superceded the once commonly prescribed beta-blockers.

These are not used as much these days, as the newer medications have proved more effective in most cases. Although they are still usefully prescribed in some patients with certain underlying conditions.

As previously mentioned, it is common for sufferers of hypertension to be prescribed more than one type of blood pressure medication. As they all work in different ways and it is unlikely that one on it’s own will completely control your high blood pressure.

It may also take a little while to find the right “cocktail” and dosage of blood pressure tablets for a patient, depending upon the reaction of the individual to any side-effects etc.

In my own case I remember it was around 6 months before my doctor settled on a combination of amlodipine and bendroflumethiazide. It was more than 6 months before I could pronounce the second one!

Click here to find out how I did it!

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Normal Blood Pressure For Men

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Frank

OK, so just what is the normal blood pressure for men? I suppose the first thing to establish is what is blood pressure anyway and how do we measure it?

We all need some blood pressure of course, and it is caused by the action of the heart pumping blood around our circulatory system (see illustration). No blood pressure equals no circulation, which equals no life.

As I’m sure we all know blood pressure is measured using two numbers. The systolic and the diastolic.

The systolic pressure is the upper number, and is the pressure of the system when the heart is beating. The diastolic pressure is the lower number and is the pressure of the system when the heart is at rest, i.e. between heartbeats.

So the ideal, or normal blood pressure for men is these days regarded by the medical profession to be 120/80.

If you have a systolic reading of between 120 and 139 coupled with a diastolic reading of between 80 and 89 you will be regarded as having prehypertension.

Once you have blood pressure readings of 140/90 or higher you officially have hypertension. Which, if it persists for more than a few weeks, will require to be lowered one way or another in order to avoid the complications caused by the condition.

Just in case you were wondering, the normal blood pressure for women is the same as that for men. Except in situations that are specific to women, such as pregnancy, menopause etc.

 

Click here to go to The Natural Blood Pressure Program official site.

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