Blood pressure surge after eating out? Any ideas?

[2bthinner!]

Measurements taken first thing in am.

2006-Nov-6 159/94 Edit
2006-Nov-5 134/89 Edit
2006-Nov-4 134/93 Edit

Would you say that means I'm salt sensitive? Or something else? (MSG?) Actually, we ate out the night before too. That was at Applebee's, I had the steak with crab cakes and broccoli. I also had two glasses of dry red wine.

Last night was Golden Corral, and I picked a piece of roasted pork out of a stew type dish. I think I'll quit doing that anyway as it was rather dry. I also had a rotisserie drumstick. A salad with oil and vinegar and green beans. (I guess the green beans could also be a salt culprit) and boiled cabbage. Drank unsweet tea.

The doctor (who may be mad at me now) did have me on DiovanHCT. He had given me samples, which I've run out of and I have no prescription. I'm not really concerned about it, but I don't know if there could be a rebound effect. Though the information I can find on it says it doesn't.

[Zuleikaa]

Sodium and msg will definitely raise blood pressure. It's not surprising after dining at Applebees...they use lots of both.

[kaypeeoh]

Golden Corral, being a salad-bar type of place, makes it soooooo easy to overeat. I would sample small amounts from several of the stations and end up eating a lot more calories than I needed. Hence, I don't go there often. But I agree, the food tends to be salt-laden.

[cs_carver]

One point isn't enough to really draw a line. A few more post-med measures, coupled with some after eating in, and then another test at an Applebee's-like restaurant, and you'll start having a line that means something.

Suspect you won't die of one high reading. It's the readings that stay up there that are the problem. You'll know more by this time next week. Might want to make an appointment, though, if the MD is hard to see. You can always cancel. Or s/he can call in a prescription if you find it's the lack of meds.

Good luck.

[2bthinner!]

He's wanting to put me on meds. He had me "try" those. The first ones didn't seem to do what he wanted, and I do tend to have a higher reading in his office. (Principal's office syndrome :lol: ) So, he put me on a diuretic.

Since that seemed to work, I wonder if I'm one of the, according to my early research, "few" salt sensitive people. I'm more inclined to think I'm potassium deficient. Mostly because we eat out a lot. So, I'm using No Salt, which is okay for my meals at home. I'm going to actually track my bp now. I was taking in randomly and, no surprise I guess, I was getting random readings. Some higher, some fine. And I'm taking some supplements which are supposed to help.

I don't want to be on medication. First, it hinders my already not moving weight loss! Second, my dad's bp was never really under control and now he has kidney issues. So, did the hbp do it, or did all his medications do it? Plus, he ate out a lot. And a lot of salt. My mother's mom is still alive, no bp issues. My dad's mom lived to be 93. No kidney issues...

I had lost a little and then I took a CAD detour. That was convenient, but I lost control of it. So, I'm back to Atkins.

[Eta:A few more post-med measures, coupled with some after eating in, and then another test at an Applebee's-like restaurant, and you'll start having a line that means something. This is what I'm going to be doing. I was just avoiding the bp issue since it "wasn't that bad". And it still isn't, but why wait?

[revcharlie]

The trouble with saying your blood pressure is "not that bad" is that years of readings that don't seem so bad can damage your blood vessels and your heart and eventually youar kidneys. If you can get it under conatrol by diet, then that is great. If not, meds will save you heart, kidneys, and life. Whether or not you are salt sensitive, too much eating at places like applebees is still too much sodium.

[cs_carver]

Second, my dad's bp was never really under control and now he has kidney issues. So, did the hbp do it, or did all his medications do it? Plus, he ate out a lot. And a lot of salt. <snip>
[Eta: This is what I'm going to be doing. I was just avoiding the bp issue since it "wasn't that bad". And it still isn't, but why wait?

When you think of how kidneys work--tissue filtration--and then think of running a high-pressure hose on a filter made of something only a few cells thick, if that, what is the most likely cause of kidney failure? I'm not a fan of a whole lot of meds myself, but I do get how hbp messes with the overall plumbing.

Sounds like he may have not been fully convinced to the point of action about the need to get his bp under control. That's part of the problem of "not that bad." Where does the damage get done? Is it this ounce, or that ounce, or this other one in a different weight class, that did the damage to my joints?

[2bthinner!]

http://www.thincs.org/Malcolm.htm#hypertens2
THE NEW HYPERTENSION GUIDELINES

Now we are all to be officially ill



by Malcolm Kendrick MD

I write this before I have read all the details on the new Heart Lung and Blood Institute guidelines on raised blood pressure. But there has been enough information flying around to know what they are saying. Frankly, I knew what these guidelines were going to say before the committee met for the first time. Before, in fact, the members of the committee even knew they were going to be on the committee.

But I claim no powers of clairvoyance or insider dealing. Nor do I claim that the ability to predict the future of hypertension guidelines represents any great intellectual feat. For guidelines in all disease states are wearily predictable. The level of anything that is considered to be abnormal rapidly closes in on the average level, whilst simultaneously the level considered average drops. A two-pronged attack ensuring that more and more people slip from the category of healthy into unhealthy.

For example, twenty years ago, a cholesterol level of 7.5mmol/l was considered high. This figure gradually moved down to 6.5mmol/l, then 6.2mmol/l, then 5.2mmol/l. Researchers in the UK are now claiming that, as the average cholesterol level in rural China is something like 2.5mmol/l, that this actually represents the ‘perfect’ level; therefore everyone in the West should be aiming for 2.5mmol/l.

I think that this must mean everyone in the whole Western world other than James McSprokitt who lives alone in a hut in the Western Isles of Scotland, and eats nothing other than prawns and gruel. The Western World’s only healthy man.

With blood pressure, there was a time when 160/90 was the cut-point for the diagnosis of hypertension. It too has moved down and down, and down. Now we have the following statement from on of the authors of the guidelines:

‘Recent scientific studies show that risk of heart disease actually begins rising once blood pressure creeps above 115 over 75,’ said guideline co-author Ed Roccella, a hypertension specialist.

I have no idea what the exact figures are, but I suspect, for example, that 95% of the adult male population of the USA has a blood pressure that is above 115/75. So we are now in the situation whereby everyone in the Western World either has a high blood cholesterol level, or a high blood pressure level, and the vast majority has both.

To quote inaccurately from the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. ‘Everyone has won, and all shall have prizes.’ Now we have reached the point where ‘Everyone is ill, and all shall be treated.’ Of course no-one is suggesting that we treat a blood pressure of 115/75 — yet. We should just be mildly uneasy and dissatisfied with our health.

Where does this all end? Well, I have never seen guidelines go into reverse, by which I mean guidelines that widen the accepted boundaries of normal. Guidelines only ever tighten, like some huge inexorable ratchet. Whether you like it or not, we are now closing in on the point whereby, if your cholesterol level is above 2.5mmo/l, and your blood pressure is above 115/75, you will be persuaded by your doctor to lower them. And if exercise and diet and weight loss don’t work — which they never do…Then guess what? It’s time for drugs.

There will always be mavericks who will refuse medication, but for the vast majority of us…..I look into the future and I see something very bleak. I remember reading something in an updated version of disease classification where all disease states were outlined, and when it came to people who were healthy, the definition of this happy state was…wait for it: ‘temporarily able.’

So remember folks, however healthy you may feel, you probably have a high blood pressure. You definitely also have a high cholesterol level. And always bear in mind that you are always, in reality, only temporarily able. A life of drug-taking disability stretches before us all.

I shall sign off with two quotes from my current favorite article from the European Heart Journal Issue 20, October 2000.

‘No randomized trial has ever demonstrated any reduction of the risk of either overall or cardiovascular death by reducing systolic blood pressure from our thresholds to below 140mmHg.’

‘Most importantly, the current paradigm considerably over-estimates the risk in the mid-range of pressure (roughly 125 — 180mmHg). This has major consequences. The vast majority of the population falls into that mid-range and the cut-point of 140mmHg lies towards its lower end. Consequently, a large proportion of the population considered at increased risk with the current cut-point are in fact at no increased risk (my bold).’

Is there anybody out there listening…… Helloooooo! Ref: Winnie the Poo, ‘Poo’s really big adventure’ 1898, Penguin books pp 63-64’

My dad also drank like a fish. Hard liquor, and smokes.

[quietone]

Even on low carb, if I eat out I will retain fluids.

If you were on a diuretic and stopped, yes there will be a rebound lasting for about 3-5 days.

The wine, can in and of itself, cause a fluctuation in BP

Advice: Stay on track and try not to eat out so much.

[kebaldwin]

I eat at Golden Corrall all the time -- and eat huge amounts -- without problems. I just got back from breakfast -- two huge plates full of ham and cheese omeletes, sausage, and bacon.

Salt and msg do not raise my blood pressure -- sugar and high glycemic foods do. IMHO It's these hidden things in the meals that are the problems.

I avoid anything other than straight meat, eggs, and cheese -- because a lot of those mixtures contain all kinds of sugars, flours, breading, and other bad things.

Their Bourbon street chicken - which is just chicken with some spices - use to be enough to raise my blood pressure.

I assuming you are just starting low carbing? It gets much, much better with time. Things that use to set my blood pressure off -- hardly raise it now.

Stick with it.

[deirdra]

If some of your BP readings are "fine", it sounds like you should be able to control it with diet. And eating at home is much cheaper than eating out.