I did a search on hypertension on this site so it seems like I'm am not alone here and there is quite a resource to draw from. So perhaps I can get some idea what I am looking at with my situation.
I'm only 34, started swimming again nearly a year ago. Partly because I new I had high blood pressure, but mostly I started swimming for overall health and fitness benifits. Since then I have lost roughly 30 pounds. At 6'2" I now weigh about 200 pounds. I would expect that all this work would have some impact on my blood pressure. Especially since I rarely drink, and my diet isn't terrible. I generally eat healthy meals. But the sad truth is that it hasn't changed. Nearly a year ago my BP was 140 over 100. This week... The same. Absolutely no change!!! As a result, my doctor put me on Lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor. So naturally I concerned about a few things.
1. Does this mean I will be taking BP medication for the rest of my life?
2. How will this impact my swimming/ability to train? is there a better medication that I should ask about so there are not adverse effects?
3. Do I need to start taking things easier in the pool?
4. Since I have a family history of hypertension does this mean there is really nothing I can do aside from medication?
5. Anything else I need to be concerned about?
Thanks in advance for any advice or helpful comments.
Kevin
I am wondering if any of you have been diagnosed with ISH, or isolated systolic hypertensions. Based on a number of readings over the last couple weeks, I feel I may have this.
Like most swimmers, I want the problem to just magically go away, or barring that, yield to a cheap but effective treatment that won't slow me down in sprints of distance swimming, or leave me to brain addled to do my job.
If anyone knows about this condition, which doctors worry about more in patients over 50 (I am 57), please check out my vlog and lease a comment there--advice, non drug intervention, drug intervention, what have you.
I don't know if ISH is treated differently from mo
re normal high blood pressure (where both numbers are elevated.)
Thanks in advance for any help you might provide.
forums.usms.org/blog.php
If so, I will definitely bring up the lisopronil endorsement. Thanks again!
FWIW, I also take lisinopril (and amlodipine) with no side effects and no impact on exercising that I am noticing.
My pressure drops quite a bit after a swim workout then slowly creeps back up to normal.
I am bringing this thread back because my recent experience might be of interest to some. Getting back in the pool seems to have done wonders for significant hypertension.
My blood pressure in January was, even with the medication I'd been taking for four years, 155/115. Far too high. Four months later my BP is 122/75. The only major change in my life is that I am now swimming about 3 times a week, about what I can manage with work and business travel.
I am getting some form back, but am not even back to the (also slow) level I was at six years ago --but I was younger then, wasn't I, and am now 57.
What's also interesting is that I am more compact. Thinner would be a nice concept but my BMI is over 30 and so that doesn't really seem the right word. And while everyone thinks I have lost weight, which I wish, I have not lost even a pound, but yes I am a different shape.
The rise and fall of my blood pressure seems to correlate with changes from more active to more sedentary life and back, and age.
But as the blood pressure seems to be responding to the swimming, I am increasing my yardage and my speed and talking to my physician about reducing the amount of medication I have been taking.
This probably is not helpful for those swimmers who already are training at a high level. But it could be a word of encouragement to keep in the pool and active, because it seems that it was a lapse in the swimming at a certain age that led to this problem.
Hi, Mary.
I, too, am 57, by the way.
When I went to the doctor's office, the nurse suggested I cut back on salt. I didn't think this would do much for me. I'd always heard that there is a portion of the population that is "salt sensitive" and that when these folks cut back, it can make a huge difference.
As a lifelong pretzel gourmand, and the kind of guy who leaves a salt ring at the dinner table when his plate is removed, I didn't think I was salt sensitive.
But I decided to give it a whack, and it seems to have made a little bit of a difference.
I also got diagnosed (in the interlude from starting this thread till now) with sleep apnea, a topic which I have started to cover in my swimming vlog (for anybody else out there who is interested.)
It's possible that once I start sleeping with CPAP, this might help my bp a little, too. By the way, I don't have too many of the traditional red flags for sleep apnea. My BMI is around 23-24; my neck is skinny at 15 inches; I don't snore too much or too loudly; and I don't drink alcohol.
My main symptom has been persistent daytime sleepiness (different from fatigue--I could work out hard, just very groggy while doing it.)
Anyhow, feel free to follow my progress (I hope there will be some!) at my swimming vlog: forums.usms.org/blog.php
