BP at 130/75, active runner, 24 y/o. Problem?

Peter3rdw wrote:

I run maybe 15-20 miles per week

I thought you said you were an active runner.

If the doctors aren't concerned, probably you shouldn't be either.

lose more weight, increase exercise, do less sitting, and decrease salt intake. the upper # is just above the borderline but the borderline high normal has recently been shown to correlate with substantially worse health than normal. maybe have your cholesterol checked. ultimately, though, as the doctors say, not that big a deal but something you should make some effort to lower.

jjjjjjj wrote:

lose more weight, increase exercise, do less sitting, and decrease salt intake. the upper # is just above the borderline but the borderline high normal has recently been shown to correlate with substantially worse health than normal. maybe have your cholesterol checked. ultimately, though, as the doctors say, not that big a deal but something you should make some effort to lower.

I can lose more weight - I am at 11% body fat currently. I will run more. I currently do a lot of interval training, so maybe less of that and more long distance? Just hard to increase the time commitment.

I do not have a high sodium diet - I'm probably at or below recommended levels.

Are there any other things I can do? I don't want to accept this as the norm. I've always been athletic and been told that I am very healthy.

Mine is similar in the doctor's office. At home it is about 110/70. You need to check your BP at home.

Blah Blah Blah Blah wrote:

Mine is similar in the doctor's office. At home it is about 110/70. You need to check your BP at home.

Call me cheap but I just really don't want to buy something to do this =/.

Also my doctors have said this just isn't an issue... and it probably really isn't.

I do get those blood rushes to the head when I stand up sometimes - always have, and I'm told that's indicative of resting blood pressure and heart rate on the low side.

I still don't even like the idea of anxiety somehow increasing my BP beyond a healthy range.

There are probably BP kiosks at your local pharmacy or grocery store. You could try taking taking your BP there to see how it compares to the doctors office.

Also this way you could take it sometimes after running, sometimes before, etc and get an idea of how it varies.

Caffeine and other stimulants can raise blood pressure as well. Do you drink a lot of coffee, tea, soda?

Again though, this is the BP range you should monitor over time, not take drastic measures to lower it.

Peter3rdw wrote:

[quote]jjjjjjj wrote:

I do not have a high sodium diet - I'm probably at or below recommended levels.

That's what I thought too, when I was diagnosed with hypertension. My doctor told me to limit sodium to 2000 mg per day. I went home, did a little research and found out I was way over 2000.

The recommended level for an average person is 2400. To get to that isn't easy. Almost everything we eat in this country is loaded with sodium. I now rarely eat out. I buy things like 'no salt added' tomatoes, beans, nuts, peanut butter, mustard. I make my own bread with reduced salt. I mostly cook with whole foods. These are the kinds of things you have to do to get to 2400 and under.

As others have mentioned, if your doctor isn't concerned, then you are probably ok. It may not hurt to track your sodium intake for a week just to get a baseline.

Are you running in the morning before going in to get your BP checked out? When i was in my mid 20's, I would go for an easy jog in the morning, a few hours later my BP was around where yours was.

When i stopped doing that, i found out my normal BP was around 110/60ish. Running, coffee, morning hits on the crack pipe, and many other things can cause a big shift. Don't be worried too much.

Blah Blah Blah Blah wrote:

Mine is similar in the doctor's office. At home it is about 110/70. You need to check your BP at home.

+1.

Dude my HR was 165/122 in the past, while I was running ~120km/week and racing ~9:00 mins for 2miles.

I took a week off and stopped eating like fat@$$ and it immediately started going down.

my guess, eat better. Run more.

Relax. That's on the high end of normal. Don't do anything extreme, just eat generally well and exercise. And to someones earlier point 15-20 miles isn't really a lot of running!

I bought BP at 30.67 last week. Bad news is 130 is decades away. Even 75 is probably 5-7 years away

Hahaha, I guess when I come to a forums dedicated to running, it's not considered very far. No excuses though, I should run more. I need to get some better shoes first.

Glad to see others have had similar issues - I start every morning with a coffee, but I'm one of those weirdos that likes to run after dinner or later. It could very well be an anxiety related problem, but aside from buying a monitor, there's no way to be sure of that.

Thanks.