Public sentiment regarding the global hypertension crisis is mixed, with a slight overall positivity towards educational resources on treatment and skepticism towards pharmaceutical interests. Many users express personal struggles and frustrations with hypertension management and reveal a reliance on medical guidance and lifestyle changes, but also share concerns over misinformation and the healthcare system's effectiveness.

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[deleted]

Brother you are playing with fire. If you care about your life you must make some changes. You have a lot going on.

ToeComfortable115

I’m highly going to recommend you ask to speak to a dietitian, because based on your comments, I don’t have a lot of info on what’s in things. Dunkin refresher has a ton of caffeine, one hashbrown serving has 480mg of sodium, and an apple fritter has 380mg of sodium. It can be hard to know, and it’s hard to eat right for your blood pressure if you don’t know

Pixiepixie21

Do you often feel your heart pounding after eating high sodium meals?

Laulena3

Change your diet. I had a complication from a cholesterol medicine that caused my blood sugar to spike, which caused high BP and sent me to the hospital. I was 180/120.  I changed my diet (which was already decent) and got my cholesterol down naturally so I didn't need meds anymore. I just take 5mg amlodipine and I'm good.

cooliebhai84

My blood pressure is mostly controlled last Valentine's Day I ate a whole box of chocolate and my blood pressure went to 150 over 100 so yes sugar can most definitely raise blood pressure

Same-Transportation1

I feel ya 

My work place has been having weird hrs lately like only min I wake up at 4 am to start and the next I start at night and that just fuckes my system up 

I had to leave early 3 or 4 nights in a row now with BP 175/115 or 150/102, big head ache and nausea each time (And I it takes about 3 to 4 hrs for it to come back down)

I noticed a link of when my body gets tired I spike 

If my routine is off Spike

It feels like your body is in control not your mind, so weird.


For context I am 35, 5"4, 155 lbs and on 3 meds (Metoprolol, telmissartan and Amlodipine) 

I feel like Amlodipine is the weaker one of my trio so might look to switch that one soon 🤔

renelledaigle

Yr headed towards a stroke. I Wld look seriously at GLP1’s and get a nutritionist or join weight watchers.

Leading_First

You already know what you need to do, you're destroying your body and have had many warning signs for it.   
You take BP medicine and still eat like a teenager, when you were first diagnosed with high blood pressure why didn't you take it seriously and make lifestyle changes?  
This is why you need to take blood pressure seriously and not just go back to your usual self-destructive lifestyle, or else, frankly, you're going to die.

That said, I recently went into hospital because I randomly checked my BP for the first time in years and it was 230/130 - I felt fine, I had felt fine for a long time, but as it turns out I had been living with this BP for a prolonged period.  
It wasn't your blood pressure that made you feel this way, BP is a "SILENT" killer for a reason, it was likely your blood sugar.

Big-Bag-7504

Odd_Connection7529

The wrong food can be the cause of a panic attack and a panic attack will raise your blood pressure. I think I was able to pin point the cause of my panic attacks and I think it’s when I eat and lay down to watch tv, that’s when my attacks are usually triggered. Always watch what you eat and walk after eating for at least 25 minutes. I hope you feel better. You will just have to figure out a way to calm yourself in your mind.

Remarkable_Leader663

Thats sound like me. And they did check everything and found nothing. 


Its anxiety and panic attack

dugemkakek1

Again, Bottom number is most important. Top is most likely anxiety. Change diet/anxiety.

LLCNYC

You should really start fasting or limiting eating when you're at home and get on a cardio routine. Of course decaf French vanilla iced coffee  from Dunkin is full of sugar. 54 grams of it. You're killing yourself. If I get over 190 at 6 feet I start getting very mild hypertension. Stop ordering door dash and start cooking a few meals and calorie count. SMH you only have yourself to blame.

Born-Sea-4942

smartwick

Sometimes my bp spikes and sometimes it drops. I’ve learned that the worst thing I can do is panic. Keep a log of your bp at home. Drs can help more when they have actual data. If yours trends high, they will prescribe something. You’re going to be ok.

Analyst_Cold

Ok… not sure how high your numbers are… but I have hyperPOTS. 

I was walking around with 157/101 for a good five months while everyone worked out what to do with me… they were concerned enough to do something, but not concerned enough to triage me as urgent. If that makes sense? 

I do a number of vagyl exercises/ breathing routines to help. I dropped a lot of salt out of my diet. I drink a lot of water, and one rehydration drink a day. I get sleep. I rest every day. I make sure I drop my body temp every day (I am in AU, it’s hot as blazes right now). 

And I carry on. Meds are slowly dropping me back to normal range, but it’s been a good ?9mths? Since I first raised my BP with the docs. Maybe a year and a half since I started saying it was problematic. No one was wildly concerned.

Particular-Try5584

I have similar symptoms and here are some things that help me when I'm experiencing a particularly bad flare of orthostatic hypertension/POTs.

When possible I lay on my side (you can lay flat if it's more comfortable) and do 4-6 breathing. That is 4 counts breathing in, 6 counts breathing out. I do my best to breathe from my diaphragm. This helps to regulate my vagus nerve and helps to bring me back to baseline. When laying down is not an option you can do this sitting down! Another thing I do is drink lots of water with electrolytes and/or eat salt. Especially if I know I'm going to be active. Definitely talk to your Dr about that though. If you have baseline hypertension then that could be more harm than help! I wear compression gear too.  Usually socks and compression leggings. I hate tight clothes so I do this less than I probably should but the compression really does help.

I will say that the biggest help is being on medication. I take propanolol 3x daily and it keeps my BP fairly normal when I'm standing. 

Hopefully this helps!

BioGal2099

Can they not give you any medication to manage your blood pressure? If sitting upright raises your blood pressure does laying down and putting your feet up lower it? Do things like magnesium help you? It is supposed to lower BP naturally. 

I would have a plan for leaving the concert if you feel unwell, or maneuvering into some position that lowers things for you. I am so sorry that things are so uncertain for you right now!

Potential_Piano_9004

Wow. Very nice, I'm on 10mg amoldipine and labetalol 2x/day. Did you have any side wffects? To get to where you are on your BP meds odyessey in only 2 months is outstanding.

CJones665A

Thanks for posting. Keep at it. I need to go out and walk today. Now that the weather is nice I want to try to get my 10k in as often as possible.

Specialist-One-8047

Guilty-Average-4974

Don't know what I can say apart from "you're awesome". I kinda saw myself in your words. Let's keep it going

Congrats!  I'm on 100 mg losartan, 25 mg hydrochlorithiazide, and the dr just added 5mg of amlopidine because my bottom number was staying stubbornly over 90.  Hoping to get to where you are soon! Keep up the good work.

BellaCaps37

Is anyone on losartan 25mg and metoprolol 25mg? I had crazy blood pressure from pain of thoracic compression fracture. Suffered for over a month. 4 ER visits, 2 urgent care, 2 ortho visits several ct scans and finally and MRI SHOWED fracture. After surgery pain improved but BP STILL MESSED UP. I'm on lowest doses because of side effects. Headaches, nausea, anxiety, weakness. It's been 2 months now. Any suggestions

0717Laws

Congratulations! Do you have any good diabetes resources you have found. I’m going through something similar with my mom.

Shesarubikscube

I'm sure that is such a relief to see those numbers!  Sorry you had to go through all that.

UsefullyChunky

I was on Labetalol for yrs due to multiple pregnancies. Before I was pregnant, I was on Lisinopril &amp; hydrochlorothiazide. After pregnancy, I was placed on Losartan, which made me feel horrible. My anxiety was through the roof. I was taken off Losartan &amp; placed on Amlodepine, which was OK &amp; worked well, but after a year, it started making my heart race, which put me in the hospital numerous times. I am now on Atenalol 25mg, Enalapril 10mg &amp; Hydrochlorothiazide 12.5mg, which seems to be working veryy well as I have always had a high heartrate. Took a while to adjust, I will say as I have health anxiety &amp; obsess over my heart &amp; if it's beating too fast or slow, but the Atenalol eases the anxiety. I hope to get off atleast 1, but I'm also on the journey of accepting just where I'm at in life &amp; learn to overall appreciate just feeling good.

Fantastic_Guitar_522

I take 2.5 Amlodipidine/80 Valsartan. No side effects and back to normal blood pressure

Wise_Two_8906

cherryreddracula

I'm FM academic. I give an entire lecture on this to M2 students. I teach it to them again when they rotate with me as M3, very often they say "oh.. other preceptors in other rotations just send to the ER". I make them repeat after me "I WILL NOT SEND ASYMPTOMATIC HTN URGENCY TO THE HOSPITAL" 

Sigh. 

Another day a resident, that I KNOW, I've taught this to. Said he wants to send asymptomatic 200/110 to the ER. 🫠

Sigh. 

I'll keep trying to educate em. 🫡

yurbanastripe

Silly med student here with a question. 

The other week, I was in the outpatient neurology clinic. We sent a patient to the ED with a BP of 170/100. Asymptomatic- just anxious. PMHx of Parkinson's and HTN. I asked the Neuro attending why (in a respectful, humble manner later that day). They said stroke risk with age. I mentioned that I read in a couple of sources that the ED won't necessarily prescribe them anything and refer them to PCP to antihypertensive management. Their response was a.) it's liability I don't want to deal with, and b.) they likely won't be able to see their PCP for weeks. 

Insights on this experience? I just go with the flow as a med student but seriously, insights anyone?

Mdog31415

I’d rather see asymptomatic hypertension then dizziness or chronic abdominal pain any night

eephus1864

I read the post title and immediately felt my own systolic top 180. Good job!

Negative_Way8350

Chiming in to say thanks for bringing this up. I’m a nursing professor and because of threads like this (you have my sense of humor) over the past four years (and the subsequent research I’ve done) I have amended my teaching so my BSN students don’t flip out over high blood pressure. Our *current* textbooks are definitely outdated when it comes to hypertensive urgency/emergency. 

Keep fighting the good fight. I like it here.

summonthegods

We also learned this in nursing school (2020). Not that it means anything (RN school is full of gobbledygook), but I can still remember the lecture about hypertensive urgency/crisis. 

Testdrivegirl

The problem is the AHA defines hypertensive emergency as BP &gt; 180/110 plus end organ damage. 

Ruling out end organ damage is a little controversial in that some would argue you need a creatinine to evaluate acute renal failure. Not to mention if the patient says they have the slightest headache or occasional chest twinge. 

Should we expect the outpatient triage line nurse to be able to rule out end organ damage over the phone? According to all of the triage protocols I’ve seen the answer is no. So whether we like it or not everyone with that elevated BP gets referred to the ER. 

I will keep ruling out the bad stuff and discharge back to PCP. Job security I guess.

Slidepull

In residency, my dumb attendings would give a dose of an IV med to bring it down to below 180 for discharge. Obviously because they wanna cover their ass but holy fuck there’s no way that even can make it to a disposition. Don’t give me some sob story of something even more benign coming back to sue them. This is well documented. It does more harm than good to do anything about it.

On the flip side, I don’t get mad at people for coming in to the ER for asymptomatic HTN, or even a pcp/midlevel sending a patient to the ER for it. Most often than not they have some sort of symptom, but it’s not related to their HTN. It’s our job to figure out if it’s related, and 99% it’s not

esophagusintubater

If you're asymptomatic with a BP &gt;210/110, can you have silent end organ damage? Some renal injury perhaps?

I don't agree they need immediate attention, but with a new accurate BP of &gt;210/110 they probably warrant same day evaluation to start anti-HTN, rule out secondary causes and arrange follow-up - no?

Don't lynch me, just an Anaesthetist.

TIVA_Turner

Some professionals get blinded and in panic with HTN.

Medical home care is pretty common in my country. A week ago another doc called from a home, requesting emergency transport for a asymptomatic patient with 190/110.

The patient was with cervical pain and very anxious fearing a stroke. She was suffering a lot of stress in her work. The doc was requesting a quick transport to an hospital scaring her even more. 

After getting rid of him, 30 min later with reassuring talk, toradol and 5 mg of valium, BP went to 140/90 without any antihypertensive treatment per se. 

This happens because they forget about the patient and only see a BP number. A little bit of clinical evaluation and treating the real cause was all that was needed.

AndreMauricePicard

AND we don't treat asymptomatic HTN. We refer them BACK to the stupid doctor who sent them in for proper medication management. Patients get so frustrated. 

I try to tell them as the triage nurse and they get all huffy then the doc comes in and says "krisiepoo is correct, blah blah blah" then we document the hell outta it so the doc will hopefully read our notes about why it's inappropriate

krisiepoo

Fingerman2112

I had a floor nurse call and chew me out because I sent a (asymptomatic , chronic HTN) patient up with a BP of like 180/105.

turtle0turtle

Good god that title put me into hypertensive crisis.

fstRN

Paramedic here. Number of times I've been called out for high BP is to numerous to count. Most of the time it's like 150-160 systolic. I usually tell them that their pressure is better than mine (I'm asymptomatic at 170-180 even with 4 BP meds). They then ask if they can safely take another BP med rather than go to the ER, I tell them yes but follow up with your PCP in the morning, if any problems come up call us back.

Successful_Jump5531

I die a little every time I have to convince the patient that there is zero work up and nothing I’m going to do for them. I wrote some DC instructions as a dot phrase and tell them to read it.

dredg713

lol I’m primary care (IM), not EM so apologies. In our residency clinic in Detroit people would walk it with SBP 210 feeling grand. We’d give them catapres and say what else can I do for you today?

ElectricMilk426

I say to patients "BP numbers are stars, but it's the constellation or the trend that I care about, I don't get worked up about a number until I see a pattern."  People fixate on their number that they see.  I also say alllll daaaaaaay loooooong "the body is like a car, it's a series of pumps fluids pressures filtration and exhaust system" (helps to reinforce why I'm collecting and measuring pee all day on cardiac floor)

Basic_Moment_9340

EM/CMM here. It goes further than this. 

It doesnt matter that the patient has a headache if they have a clean CT and a normal neuro exam. 

The headache doesnt change anything. They arent having “hypertensive emergency” (which isnt a diagnosis despite how many times I scream this into the wind). 


“Hypertensive Emergency” is not a thing. “Head bleed” is a thing, which is ONE hypertensive emergency.   If they arent bleeding into their skull, they arent going to get any benefit from BP reduction. 

If you ask a patient enough times about having a headache or blurry vision, eventually they arent going to say they have a headache. High blood pressure doesnt cause headaches. We know this.

Unfair-Training-743

The only good reason to treat those people is &gt;!if you have a lot of stock in pharmaceutical companies!&lt;

shookwell

I just know urgent cares are reading this and punching the air real hard right now

runswithscissors94

FML trying to D/C the anxious asymptomatic patient with a SBP of 180 that was sent to the ED for “hypertensive crisis” by their PMD after the ED doc, myself, the EVS lady, the transporter, the food services people, and all of mankind has explained that they are ok to go home.

justbringmethebacon

I used to work in ED, and now in ENT. I keep telling my attending about this. That ASYMPTOMATIC HTN is not something that needs an ED eval. An earlier PCP follow up is best, which we can coordinate if their PCP is within our hospital system. I even showed him all the studies about it. He still sends our ENT patients with chronic SBP 180 that did not take their home meds to the ED…. And to my surprise, the ED does a full workup and they get discharged. 

Sometimes it’s just the hospital culture too. In the ED i worked at, everyone from admissions to the ED attendings would be super annoyed if you dare attempt to admit or do a workup in a completely asymptomatic hypertensive. At this current hospital where my clinic is within, they do a workup on asymptomatic HTN and my attending still sends them to the ED. Its so frustrating . One clinic day, he sent 3 of them to the ED for this…

swirleyy

Do you guys think that the numbers of non-symptomatic HTN patients sent to the ER from PCP offices are related to the fear of liability?

CMorbius

I deal with this a lot as a paramedic. I work in a rural area where there's not a lot of primary care and no urgent care. It's not abnormal for 5 people per day to come to our station, many to get their blood pressure checked. The number of times PER DAY I have to explain to people that asymptomatic hypertension is not an emergency is astounding. More than half of them end up finding a symptom and requesting a 1 hour transport to the ER anyway.

Anonymous_Chipmunk

9 Days in a Row of Hypertensive Crisis. Avg reading 210/100

Malkmus_jag

Dont give a shit what the guidelines are.  You can still be sued if a bad outcome especially if you dont explicitly documented you assessed the patient and documented no symptoms.  What if they stroke out 2 hours later and they blame it on you not treating hypertensive urgency.  What if they develop MI the next day.  Unlikely, but you can still be held liable.  Just like that one PCP who got sued for not checking PSA and lost because the guidelines said not to because there was no "share decision making"

  
Fuck that.  I am not going to go see the patient and talk to him about shared decision making for a 180.  I just think what most hospitals and practitioners would do in this situation wheter they are smart or dumb i dont give a shit that is the standard of care.

fruitsalad35

Ive found my people albeit a bit late. Been having chest tightness and oxygen hunger and recently diagnosed with very mild MVP. Now I’m going down the pulmonary hypertension rabbit hole. It’s absolutely terrified to feel like u have something undiscovered that could impact your life. Glad I’m not alone even if this post was made 2 years ago hahaha

maudfeelings

i have recently been so anxious about this as well, made the mistake of coming across a video in which someone stated their symptoms. i have been known to have pretty irrational cases of health anxiety, and this is my most heavy case yet. because all the symptoms of this deadly disease sound like anxiety. i just want to stop worrying

snowdropseason

Significant-Ad2703

A WHO report reveals that 1.4 billion people worldwide suffer from uncontrolled hypertension, leading to over 10 million deaths annually, despite being preventable.

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