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Bill in NC
05-13-2006 08:28:33
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Re: Just checking in in reply to Michael Soldan, 05-13-2006 06:48:15
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Not a doctor, just a guy who reads stuff and from my limited understanding blood pressure is essentially measures the "flexibility" of one"s arteries. The top number is the pressure on the heartbeat and the bottom number is the pressure between heartbeats. Since blood flows in a peristaltic fashion through our arteries, the two measures tell us about the flexibility of our blood vessels. Thus high blood pressure is a lack of flexibility of our blood vessels which can be caused (and I am reaching here) by deposits (cholesterol, calcium, scarring, blood vessel material changes). The cholesterol statin drugs appear to do wonders because of their gradual cleaning-out or at least halting of deposits in the blood vessels. Also, I"ve read where the statin drugs also may be reducing inflammation-related activities in the blood vessel walls which some researchers feel is where the action is for these problems (besides keeping platlets from sticking together, aspirin also has anti-inflammatory properties which helps the blood vessels). For some people, high blood pressure apparently is a case of too much fluid volume (blood fluids) for the body"s circulatory system. Think of overfilling a hydraulic system. For those people getting off salt (sodium makes the body retain water = more blood fluid volume) is a life style change that reduces their blood pressure. Whereas some people can drop their blood pressure by losing weight. My uncle was a country Doctor and he frequently said that most overweight folks with high blood pressure could significantly drop their BP with the first 20 pound weight loss. In other words, they might lose 60 pounds overall, but the BP effect was seen with the first 20. This weight loss also helps the person get their blood sugar/insulin control back to better state as well. As for myself, my BP ran 135/90 for a number of years and then I changed some things about my diet and it has stayed around 120/70 ever since then. Those changes were plain, cook-on-the stove oatmeal for breakfast with walnuts (lineolic oil content) and raisins. Eating more olive oil for salad dressing and such. Eating more fish. Taking six (6) fish oil capsules everyday (omega 3 fats). Apparently, fish oils (omega 3) are the stuff that makes our body run well, especially the flexibility of our blood vessels. The other diet changes are total avoidance of trans-fats. Those man-made fats are a killer. Apparently our bodies (livers) don"t know what to do with the stuff. Lastly, I stay away from soft drinks. Used to love sweet tea and Cokes, but they are off the list. My speculation regarding America"s obesity epidemic partially can be blamed on the soft drink manufacturers switching from cane/beet sugars in the late 1970"s to corn syrup based sweeteners. I"ve read where the body processes sucrose (cane/beet sugars) differently than fructose (corn syrup sugars). Rambling comments from an average Joe reader and Internet surfer.
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