Borderline Hypertendion

Well said, Ernie!

Hi Ernie thank you for your reply, and well done on the weight loss and healthier lifestyle.  I have some time to try and drop the BP as the doctor wont let me take them until they have done blood test and got the results which will take a few weeks because of holidays, I have already started some major cut backs and started walking twice a day so I am really hoping it will help.

Thank for your reply JX. The tablets she prescribed for me are Lisinopril ?5mg, however she told me not to take them until I have my blood tested and she gets the results and because of the holidays that will take a couple of weeks.  I don't know why I cant take them before blood works come back as I was on Propranolol for something different a few years ago and had no blood work done then.  I also had no side effects of Propranolol so I am wishing I had just asked her if I could take those instead.  I don't find it difficult to lose weight I lost a stone two years ago by healthy eating and walking 3 miles a day and kept it off with the walking.  But earlier this year I broke my rib and couldn't move never mind walk, it was a lengthy job and has only just righted itself so I have not been walking and quite inactive for around 4 months that is how I managed to put the 12 pounds on. I have a BP monitor at home and will keep a close eye on it and if it doesn't start coming down or goes any higher then I will take the tablets.  What sort of diuretic could I take?

There are the usual several kinds of prescription diuretics.

?I don't know what to make of a doctor who gives you pills and then waits for results to come back.  Lisinopril is certainly one of the most popular ACE/ARBs in the US.  I'm just a little surprised at many posters on this list, in the US it seems doctors like to give you several different drugs at once, to block more of the different possible causes of BP.

https://www.classaction.com/news/blood-pressure-guidelines-lowered/

 

What enormous kickback do they get from generic drugs that cost pennies ?

28 50mg Losartan cost 82 pence.28 Lisinopril 65 pence. The NHS are ripping you off with  the prescription charges.

 

https://www.classaction.com/news/find-physician-payroll-big-pharma/

The point is many Rx drugs based on the "new" guidelines are being overprescribed, period.  Be careful, keep asking questions, and seek another opinion or two when doubts persist.

 

I take it you are talking of American guidelines as you use "RX"

When I was working in the NHS in the 1960s and 70s, each item on a patient's prescription card was prefaced by "Rx", usually with the horizontal down-stroke of the "R" lengthened and crossed through to form an "x". I worked in four different hospitals, and to the best of my recall this system was used in all of them. It was certainly in use in the London teaching hospital where I trained, as I remember being taught what it meant.

I normally only see it used by the Americans on this Forum. Do doctors still need to learn Latin?

No idea derek. Most of the ones I encountered in the UK during my father's last illness in the 80s and my mother's slow decline in the 90s/noughties didn't even appear to have learned English. And that was by no means always because they had a different mother-tongue. I read an article a few years ago that said a lot of medical students had serious problems with spelling and grammar - including using textspeak when taking their finals!

That is still the case with spelling and grammar and not just with doctors.

We did Latin at school in the 1950's but not many did. My cousin was at a much better school than I but did not do Latin and had to do a crash course when he went to study law.

Some of the letters consultants send to my GP show their lack of English and I cannot understand why their secretaries don't correct them. Apart that is that many are dictated and sent electronically to India for typing. Many are marked sent unsigned to save time.

Yup - me too, four years of it, also in the 50s. I failed it at O Level though. Never saw the point of it at the time. I wanted to study German instead, but we weren't allowed to choose our subjects. We all had to do five years of French of course - which came in very handy 15 years down the line. I only started to appreciate having some knowledge of Latin later on. It was a help when I had to start learning medical terms, but I also realised you could work out the meaning and nuances of lots of English words via their Latin roots.

Your post reminds me of when I was an Army nurse in HK, back in the 70s. All the med secs were locally-employed Chinese girls. In general they could beat their modern British counterparts into a cocked hat, but there were a few inevitable comic mishaps via the dictaphone. At one point the obs & gynae consultant was looking after a pregnant military wife with a chronic lung condition that was causing dyspnoea as her pregnancy progressed. Being unfamiliar with non-gynaecological terms, his med sec rendered his report as: "Dyspareunia when going uphill but OK if left to go at her own pace on the flat". (Google it if you're not familiar with the word.) That one raised some interesting images in our minds.

I went to A&E once and the foreign  triage nurse asked what medications I took. I said Verapamil and Losartan. She said you have hypothermia. I said no hypertension.

Every time she came out to call the next patient everyone just sat there. She then tried different pronunciations of the name. Eventually people were laughing at her efforts.

 

Hey, Derek.  I personally think one of the worst things we did in Education was discontinuing the teaching of Latin.  It is the root of so many words.  With a Basic understanding of Latin, one can figure out the spelling and/or the meaning of so many English words!  But then again, I feel the same way about discontinuing Phys Ed!  We Americans are generally overweight and our Kids leave school and go home to their Social Devices rather than go outside and play!  And PC has become so prevalent, Heaven Forbid one should comment about anyone being overweight!

You're describing the UK too Ernie - in every respect! Not so much continental Europe though. We do have the same problem of compulsive phone use - you can hardly walk down the street without being trampled. However, the obesity epidemic is taking off much more slowly here, ditto the dumbing down epidemic, though I've no doubt we're heading the same way. The main difference is in the PC area, where we Continentals lag far behind the alarming US/UK levels - though ironically the Brits blame us for all their PC problems and believe they've found the solution.... Still, enough of that or I'll get us all taken down!

Yes, I still benefit from my bit of knowledge of Latin. They thought that we were not  doing well in it and after two years switched us over to woodwork!. I'm not sure if our schools still have PE or not.

Our daughter did Ancient Greek in her last year at school but not Latin.

Brits are getting very fat and fast catching up with Americans and Germans. However I was quite shocked when we went to Australia as I had always thought it was a fit not fat country:-)

  

Well done you, henpen! And a big thank-you to our moderator too, for releasing the post.