Health Questions

[Nobody]

I figured rather than starting threads every different time me or anyone else has a health concern, we can just put it all here.

I have yet another health question, but this one isn't a concern, just looking for an explanation as to how it happened.

I was diagnosed with hypertension about 10 years ago. I was on medicine for a while, but lost my insurance and had to quit the medicine for a couple of years. I started back on it about 3 years ago.

Normally, I would take the medicine once a day, and it would work great. On average, my BP was around 120/80. About 2 weeks ago, it seemed to just stop working. I had severe headaches all day, I always felt hot, and I could feel the pressure in my head and ears. My doctor told me to increases my does to twice a day to have an added boost. Even with taking it twice a day, my BP was staying around 170/105. That is horrible when my dose was doubled and not helping.

My doctor told me to take fish oil, quit smoking, exercise more, sleep better. My diet has always been good, so I didn't have to change it or take any supplements. I didn't quit smoking, my knees are too jacked up to exercise, and I'm an insomniac. Literally the only thing he suggested that I was actually able to do was take fish oil. It's Trader Joe's brand omega-3 with 1200mg of fish oil and 600mg total EPA&DHA.

So I dealt with this for 2 weeks with no improvement. Then suddenly today, without even taking my medicine yet, I take my BP and it's 114/79. Also, my pulse went from averaging 85 to being 66.

So I guess my question is for people with knowledge about this type of thing - is it possible that the fish oil made this much of an improvement, or was the spell of excessive BP likely caused by something that is no longer an issue?

 

[Boone]

Here's the scoop on fish oil from the NIH.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/993.html

Honestly, if you are interested in being healthy, you absolutely need to quit smoking. Nothing else you do is going to have the impact that one action would.

As for having these global threads, it's not necessary. I know other sites insist on 'keeping things in the appropriate thread', but to me it just makes a site boring and generic. There's no prohibition on thread-starting here as long as folks aren't attention whores.

We aren't Facebook. But we're not control freaks either. Generally we trust members to post what they think will interest others.

 

[servumtuum]

Extreme, I don't know how helpful this may be since I'm giving you personal anecdotal info rather than a randomized controlled clinical study which is always going to give you more accurate data on whether a therapy or medicine is likely to work, however I voluntarily put myself on a low-salt diet 35 years ago and at the age of 63 my BP averages 122/71, almost never any higher than 130/80 and hypertension runs in my mother's side of the family.

I do watch what I eat, it's about 75% vegetarian, low fat, a lot of cold saltwater fish (salmon, flounder, haddock. cod, 1-2 cans of sardines per week...etc) along with chicken and turkey with lots of legumes and green veggies and I try to keep the carbs from getting out of hand-this is sometimes difficult since I love pasta dishes. I've oriented my eating habits a bit more toward Eastern Mediterranean I also exersise, mainly brisk walking, between 2-4 km at a stretch. three or more times per week.

For more info, you might want to check this article in The International Journal of Epidemiology on salt intake and hypertension:http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/2/327.full

 

[Nobody]

Here's the scoop on fish oil from the NIH.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/993.html

Honestly, if you are interested in being healthy, you absolutely need to quit smoking. Nothing else you do is going to have the impact that one action would.

I've definitely been well aware of the Omega-3 benefits for a while, I just can't begin to fathom it having such an incredible effect as it seems to be having on me.

I agree about the smoking, and it still bothers me that I can't kick it. I gave up drugs and alcohol no problem, with no relapse and not so much as a craving. The fact I have tried and failed so many times to quit smoking drives me nuts. I know what it's doing to me, I know I need to stop, I just can't. The best I ever did was stopping for 4 days a year or so ago. I thought I was doing great, then that fourth day I began having severe dizzy spells, tremors, vomiting, and a headache so bad I thought I was having a stroke. My wife freaked out and rushed me to the ER. They ran a bunch of tests and informed me I was going through severe acute nicotine withdraw. They said roughly 1 in 100 people that try to quit smoking go through violent heroine-like withdraws. When they told me it would get a lot worse before it got better, and could last up to 72 hours, I said to hell with that, and smoked a cigarette. Within minutes of smoking it, I felt completely normal. I honestly believe that it's a psychological thing with me, where the fear of having to endure that again is what's keeping me from trying to quit. People tease me all the time about it, and a certain member here tried to downplay it like I was making a mountain out of a mole hill, but until someone has gone through the misery I went through with that, they can't seriously say that it's easy to do if I really want to. I hate smoking. Thee cost, the health problems, nothing is good about it. But the withdraw was horrifying.

Extreme, I don't know how helpful this may be since I'm giving you personal anecdotal info rather than a randomized controlled clinical study which is always going to give you more accurate data on whether a therapy or medicine is likely to work, however I voluntarily put myself on a low-salt diet 35 years ago and at the age of 63 my BP averages 122/71, almost never any higher than 130/80 and hypertension runs in my mother's side of the family.

I do watch what I eat, it's about 75% vegetarian, low fat, a lot of cold saltwater fish (salmon, flounder, haddock. cod, 1-2 cans of sardines per week...etc) along with chicken and turkey with lots of legumes and green veggies and I try to keep the carbs from getting out of hand-this is sometimes difficult since I love pasta dishes. I've oriented my eating habits a bit more toward Eastern Mediterranean I also exersise, mainly brisk walking, between 2-4 km at a stretch. three or more times per week.

For more info, you might want to check this article in The International Journal of Epidemiology on salt intake and hypertension:http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/2/327.full

I find all that interesting, because I made a drastic dietary change almost a decade ago that I have never wavered from, and my BP has gone up over the years instead of down.

I go fishing a lot, all year long. As a result, I have a steady supply of fresh fish, and eat it about 6-8 times a month. I also eat plenty of chicken, fresh grown vegetables, and almost zero sodium. I eat red meat at most 3 or 4 times a year, and I eat pork only a few times a month. I never eat processed foods, and almost every single thing I eat, I make fresh, because I only eat out a few times a year, and never more than once a month.

On top of all this, I also take Acidopholous, all my dairy intake is low fat, I don't snack, I eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains, and I absolutely never eat fried foods. Based on my diet, I should be slim and have low BP. Instead, I have stage 1 hypertension, and I'm roughly 40 lbs overweight. I just don't get it. I'm not extremely active, but I'm not inactive either. I assume I'm either genetically predisposed to not be able to shed the weight, or maybe it's a medical issue causing it, but they have run many tests on me with no results to explain it all.

The thing that really bothers me, is I have every single symptom there is for hypothyroidism, which runs in my family on my mother's side, but every test they try for it comes back negative. I even have the symptoms for the disease that they classify as rare, but they have been unable to find any trace of it. Maybe there is an explanation for it that they haven't found or looked for, but I've been to a lot of doctors and specialists that were absolutely certain that I had it, and it would explain the inability to lose weight, along with all my symptoms, but when they run a test, they are baffled at the results showing a perfectly functioning thyroid gland.

I have always gotten a lot of cysts in joints and organs all over my body, but I've never thought to ask if it's possible to have a thyroid cyst that could be causing it. I'll have to look into that.

 

[McD5]

It's New Year's Eve Extreme......go chain smoke as many as you like right now.....then consider really trying to quit, at least for the next two days, into the New Year.

 

[Nobody]

It's New Year's Eve Extreme......go chain smoke as many as you like right now.....then consider really trying to quit, at least for the next two days, into the New Year.

Well done sir. You forgot to add be nicer to people and lose then regain 5-10 lbs