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High blood pressure - 23/M

Posted , 5 users are following.

tom46729
tom46729

Hi everyone, 

Apologies for the long post & also thanks in advance for any assistance given. 

I am a 23 year old male with high blood pressure and a bit confused about what I can do to lower it. I first learned of my high blood pressure when I was 21 and woke up with very bad chest pains. I dismissed it at first as I had been having similar pains for the previous few years. After about 8 hours I decided to go to the hospital and told them about it. They did ECGs etc. and said there was nothing wrong with me and I should go home. They had noticed that my ECG was abnormal (but were not sure if 'it was normal for me')and that my BP was elevated. 

After going back to a private doctor he put me through blood tests / MRI / CT scans / ECGs as well as a 24 hour blood pressure monitor. They also did another test which I can't remember the name of but was a bit like an ultrasound on a pregnant woman. When the results came back he suspected I had a case of pericarditis and was surprised when my blood pressure average came back as 155/90 over 24 hours. I am not overweight, I exercise a few times a week, do not smoke and although I drink more now I didn't drink too much at the time. Admittedly my diet was very bad a couple of years ago and I decided to change it to prevent any further damage.

Being quite stubborn I ignored the doctor's advice to go for thyroid test / adrenal gland tests etc. and hoped it would improve with just a change in diet. 

Coming into 2016 (now 23 and still on a fairly good diet/lifestyle and low salt intake) I used a friend's blood pressure monitor and got quite a few averages - from different times of the day during the period of a week - and got readings typically around 170-180/100. 

I decided to go back to a doctor last month and gave him the list to have a look at. He sent me off to do a full range of blood tests and everything came back in the normal range - including thyroid tests / cholesterol etc. but my blood pressure was still high when he measured it at 160/100. He prescribed an 80mg ARB dose once per day. 

A month of this treatment has gone by and I am still getting readings anywhere around 150-180/85-105. 

While I do drink more than I should I otherwise seem quite healty and I am bit concerned that it is still not coming down. 

I'd really appreciate any advice / guidance on where I should go from here with my doctor? Is there, perhaps, anything they might have overlooked? 

Thanks again.

Tom

0 likes, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • RHGB
    RHGB tom46729

    Posted

    Echocardiogram was probably the ultrasound test.

    How much do you drink? Don't cut it in half, it won't help, say accurately what you drink. Are you overweight? What sort of job do you do, is it stressful?

  • Guest
    Guest tom46729

    Posted

    Try Beetroot juice (not cooked beetroot) in the morning and grated ginger tea at bedtime.
  • bullets
    bullets tom46729

    Posted

    What do you drink - spirits, beer, wine ?

    Do you ever indulge in sweets -candy, licorice in particular, or choc/licorice bullets ?

  • Dave94501
    Dave94501 tom46729

    Posted

    Don't worry. When you start with blood pressure as high as yours it is usual to need more than one medication. Your doctor will likely prescribe a CCB or diueretic to go with your ARB as they work well together. For me I went from 170/110 to 160/100 with ARB. With the addition of a low dose of diueretic or CCB to the ARB I quickly went to 120/80.
    • tom46729
      tom46729 Dave94501

      Posted

      Hi Dave, thanks for your reply. I will mention it to the doctor today and see what he says.
  • tom46729
    tom46729

    Posted

    Hi everyone, thanks very much for the prompt replies. 

    In terms of drinking probably 2-3 pints of beer a day and occasionally wine. I try to stay away from the liquor.

    I don't eat crisps / confectionary etc and not overweight. BMI is around 21. 

    I work in the broking industry which is quite stressful but have been working in the business since I was 19. Perhaps I am stressed but have gotten used to the stress levels? 

    • RHGB
      RHGB tom46729

      Posted

      Certainly stress plays a bigger part in out lives, When I was an area manager with a large company back in 1998, it was quite an enjoyable job. Then soon after they introduced mobile phones, but because they were expensive, they weren't used too much (incoming calls), but then they became cheaper to call and people suddenly started expecting you to answer at the weekends, in the evening, early morning, I had one call at 6:30am.

      Then came email, you'd get up early have a long day's drive, visit clients and then return home, but you couldn't switch off, you'd be expected to answer all that day's emails, from eyeryone sat in an office at a computer. So you would work into the evening. Then came the Blackberrys, now you were expected to deal with emails during the day, on a tiny little screen and keypad, without access to most of the required information.

      In the end I left before I had a heart attack. What I did do, was in 2003, go on a month long holiday to Australia and took a BP machine with me. By the second week, my BP had returned to the normal range. Try measuring your BP at home at the weekend. BP machines are quite cheap these days.

      And back to my original point, can you imagine your parents in their job, getting contacted during the evening or the weekends, they were sacrosanct back in those days.

    • tom46729
      tom46729 RHGB

      Posted

      That sounds extremely similar to my situation. I working in a global industry and do a lot of work with people in Asia and America, so for me even when I am at home I keep an eye on my phone/emails and could get a call at any time, even 3am. 

      It does make it very hard to switch off, even on a week long holiday.

      As you say my father works in a hospital and I still remember the days when the house phone might ring, then the bleeper came along and the mobile. 

      It certainly intrudes on personal time. 

    • bullets
      bullets tom46729

      Posted

      Hi Tom

      I only asked about the confectionery because of licorice, which I know can send BP up very quickly and to great heights.  My husband experienced this problem in January this year 2016.    On asking at GPs and Nurse Practitioners here in Australia, they didn't seem to have any knowledge at all...everything I learned about licorice confectionery and high BP, came from UK and USA....remarkable.

  • Miss_JMA
    Miss_JMA tom46729

    Posted

    You are justified in your concern. I suggest you lay off the alcohol for a while and see if it any impact.

    There are several classes of drugs to treat hypertension. I suggest you discuss this with your physician. And lastly, do whatever you can to relieve anxiety/stress as this can significant cause blood pressure elevation. Hope something works and do not stop searching for a solution.

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