Q: How fast can blood pressure be lowered, and what would you have to do, i am scheduled to have surgery and it can’t be done if my pressure is not down, i am taking 3 different types of medication for this and fish oil. and it seems to be still out of control. i hadn’t eaten in 2 days, scared to eat hoping that it would go down, I even started eating only fruits and vegetables for 3 days and got constipated. please help, i need this surgery to relieve some pain.
A: In an emergency setting, blood pressure can be lowered very quickly under close monitoring. Before elective surgery, it is best to gradually get your blood pressure into good control to lower your risk of complications. Starving yourself is not an effective or safe way to lower blood pressure. Make sure the doctor who prescribes your blood pressure medicine is in communication with your surgeon. Chronic pain can make blood pressure more difficult to control. Anxiety about upcoming surgery can contribute to high blood pressure. Both your doctors should be in agreement about the timing of your surgery and the steps that need to be taken to get you ready for surgery.
(27 votes, average: 3.52 out of 5)
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If you leave grains and fructose out of your diet along with potatoes you will see a huge improvement. If I ate the wrong food mine would shoot away up sometimes to 200. Do not eat a lot of fruit . Plenty of protein, green vegetables such as cabbage and broccolli and no fizzy drinks.
Exercise every day is essential. Good luck
Keep in mind that animal protein of any kind actually promotes atherosclerosis one of the building blocks of hypertension. You want to limit consumption of those foods like meat and dairy which injure the endothelium’s ability to produce nitric oxide. The body has this wonderful capability to produce nitric oxide when the arteries are healthy. It is the most powerful vasodilator in the body.
Why do potatoes still get a bad rap???,, that is old school thinking people,,,,each and every time my BP wants to shoot up,, I head for the kitchen to find some potatoes, usually the little dark purple ones I kept in the fridge, but if not available a plain potato does it,, brings down the BP each and every time. So please do some New research on potatoes out there people,, its sooo loaded with Potassium ! Now moving on ahem,, This person me, would never take what someone wrote below says he is taking to lower BP seriously anyone can call themselves a naturopath , ck this bird’s schooling Cardiotone, are you kidding? find out what tee pee he went to school in! this herbal concoction may look like its doing the trick for certain individuals for a short term( oh and please, good lord dont go under anesthesia at this time using Cardiotone oh and also using this long term look out for damaged organs, not worth gambling with.
Blue/purple potatos are good for you, but most people eat white and red skin potates which are usually problematic. Sweet potatos are also good. I’ve never seen a blue/purple potato in my 25 years in NYC with all these organic grocery stores, so I doubt most people have access to them.
I had similar problems with spiking BP. Diet is the best defense–no animal protein, dairy, sodium or oils. All of these take their toll on hypertension and damage the inner lining of the blood vessels, called the endothelium. Also, no fructose as mentioned above, which includes fruit juices, simple sugars, refined grains, white pastas, flours etc. fruits are fine since the sugar is bound to the fiber. Vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains can be consumed in unlimited quantitites. If you adopt to this new way of eating you should see stabilization within 2 weeks.
I have had issues with HBP for a few years, I visited a Naturopath and was given an Ayurvedic supplement called “Carditone”. I took one caplet in the morning and one in the evening and in a matter of a couple of days, it did a fantastic job on lowering my BP and resting BPM. I now only take one caplet in the morning. Infact my BP this morning was 105/63 with a BPM of 58. You can find Carditone on the internet – about $28.00 for 60 caplets.
Carditone contains reserpine(Indian snakeroot rawulfia serpentina) a potent alkaloid that is known to produce intractible and sometimes irreversible major psychotic types depression. It was at one time used to treat psychosis . Reserpine is available by perscription in some countries and otc in others but is rarely ever used today. It has a vasodialating effect by mediating cholinergic processes in human cells, it depletes mono amines and causes all kind of havoc on various systems that depend on serotonin, epinephrine etc.. including your digestive system, kidneys, brain, muscle etc. The dose of health food medicine grade may be very low, below toxicity, but it may not be highly controlled. Make sure you tell your doc you are using a form of resperpine, it can have all kinds of ramifications on other health problems and drug interactions
blood pressure can be succesfully reduced in an anesthesia situation by using various drugs safely via a well trained anesthesiologist. If you cannot get your bp to normotensive levels your procedure may still be able to be done with using a cocktail of drugs that reduce bp rapidly for short periods of time, post surgery other drugs can be added to your exisiting drugs or tried in replacement of them. People with hypertension are not excluded from surgery, ideally their pressure should be controlled but not everyone is that lucky
Carditone evidently can have many side effects. It would be important to check it out carefully with your doctor before using it. One of the side effects is depression.
I can vouch for Carditone–it works extremely well with little or no side effects. In fact, it was better than medication for me. Some people complain of depression but I didn’t notice any of that–just a nice calm feeling and great BP numbers.
If you look up a diet called, Kempner Diet – I think you will find some interesting facts. It’s something Pilot’s use before their annual exam to ensure their BP is at the right level.
This just doesn’t make sense. White rice is high GI (glycemic index) and will spike insulin. High insulin is now thought to be directly correlated to hypertension. Very little animal protein, dairy, oil and low sodium is still the preferred dietary approach.
I have read about this diet on Dr. Whittaker’s book on hypertension but the rice used is brown (whole grain)rice, not the refined variety you mention. He recommends to start with one week eating only steamed brown rice (several recipes) and lots of fruits and vegetables but no meat or any other animal proteins or dairy products. During the following weeks some fish or lean poultry can be added, but sparingly. This is the diet he recommended to an airlines pilot who was about to lose his license due to HBP and he was able to pass the annual exam “with colors”.
This makes more sense. When I read an article on google it talked about white rice for the Kempner diet. In essence this is the diet I have been following. In my case, I follow a Vegan diet by Dr. Esselstyn. The Engine 2 diet is also pretty much the same.
Dave, what is BPM? Are you referring to pulse pressure
(systolic minus diastolic)?
I think he’s referrign to heart rate or pulse.
My wife went into (HMH) Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown,KY for Pneumonia. she was put on Prdisone plus an levofloxacin. She had a serious interaction with the 2 drugs and the doctors wouldn’t take her off the medication.She broke out with open sores on her body and lost 20 pounds in the 12 days she was in that hospital I had to remove her from HMH and transfer her to another hospital or they would had killed her there for sure. When the new hospital took her off the Predisone she begin to improve and I filled a grievance aganist HMH and hope to sue the morons soon.However my wife blood pressure droped 20% and we were able to take her off some of her blood pressure medication. Were we used to worry about her blood pressure and heart rate being to high we now worry about it being to low. We figure the lower blood pressure is due because of the rapid weight lost of 20 pounds in 5 12 days. She went 7 days in HMH and didn’t eat a bite and the hospital staff and doctors did nothing as she deteroitated,kept getting weaker and sicker.We both hate that hospital and pray neither of us have to stay there again.
I’m not sure what all of this hysteria is regarding HBP. My mother has HBP and from the looks of it, she’s going to outlive all of the rest of my relatives.
It’s a good thing you were on the ball Jerry and got her out these doctors are suppose to cure people, not kill them geeze. I have high blood pressure and your story has given me some hope that if i lose some of this weight im carrying it might help to lower mine so thank you and good luck ……cheers
Organizing what basically has been said here which is all correct, (and in no particular order). Eat a diet prescribed for diabetics which avoids all refined sugars and refined grains and products made with those, like white bread, pastries, etc. By sticking to a diet like this you will lose weight more easily specially if you watch the total calories at the end of the day, by not spiking your insulin and losing weight as an added benefit your BP comes down gradually.
Easy with the starches (sugar in a costume) like potatoes, and too much fruit, specially those fruits with a high sugar content (fructose) and eat more vegetables like beets, cabbage, broccoli, etc.
Watermelon promotes the release Nitric oxide which relaxes arteries and therefore BP, beets are also good for lowering BP. (see L Arginine)
Make sure your Mag intake is complete, Magnesium is our natural Calcium channel blocker, anxiety causes the release of adrenaline which is the most potent vasoconstrictor in the body, recreational drugs, including nicotine, and panic attacks the way they rise the blood pressure is by causing a release of adrenaline, and for adrenaline to exert its influence needs calcium to accomplish cellular contraction, besides interfering in this process magnesium is a mild mind relaxant, so you get a double benefit from it.
The latest research indicates the way salt increases BP is by facilitating the release of adrenaline besides increasing the volume of water in the blood, so a diuretic is a first line of attack against HBP, but nobody wants to be depleted of sodium in the body because the lack of sodium has adverse effects.
On the long range, exercise and not being overweight and well nourished is the key to good BP, for instance, as an example of good nourishment getting the right amounts of copper along with vitamin C is essential to have good elasticity in connective tissues (stretchy veins included). Plus offering a protection against aneurisms and other benefits.
And lastly, don’t despair because anxiety and stress will raise your BP for sure as 2 plus 2 is 4, there is nothing mysterious or fatalistic about the condition, just the lack of the proper understanding and correct action, believe me.
Drew,
Thank you for your informative & calming report. Your last paragraph gave me hope for the despair I have been having over my bp.
You are right about anxiety & stress raising the bp.
Thanks again, you made my day.
There is a very simple way to lower blood pressure quickly. Green and Blacks 85% cocoa chocolate bars – two pieces from the chocolate bar will lower your blood pressure 40 points in just a few minutes. The only problem with using dark chocolate (the one mentioned works the best) is of course the ingested sugar.
I use 100% cacoa cocoa powder and mix with a little flavored soy milk and heat in the microwave. It lowers my BP but not 40 points, usually about 10 points max.
It’s important to note that folks should not be going out taking L-Arginine supplements since this compound has be shown to actually increase the risk of heart attack. You’ll get all the L-Arginine you need via a sensible plant based diet. The L-Arginine then converts to nitric oxide which dilates the blood vessels, thereby lowering BP.
Adequate potassium, calcium, and magnesium are essential for regulation of blood pressure. My husband takes blood pressure medication, but sometimes his bp still spikes. When this happens we first treat with calcium, magnesium, and potassium supplements and adequate amounts of water. We have found these these effective in helping to lower blood pressure. Look up the effects these supplements have on blood pressure for yourself.
Does this Green and Blacks chocolate bar really work that well? How long does the BP reduction last.? I am a pilot and have my annual physical soon. The Doc always moans about my BP, tho it is OK compared with general population. The Kempner diet mentioned above sounds somewhat bland (boring) and besides I love chocolate!! Any input/opinions would be keenly received.
Ive been taking BP medication, the lowest mg for Lisiniprol 5mg and Metropol 25mg. It has been high recently, so Im back eating no potato chips (even thou they are saltless), no bread, no rice, no pasta, nothing white. Hopefully this will bring it down to below 120/80. Should I take calcium tablets, Im also eating a lot of garlic. I want to one day off medication. What shall I do???