6 years ago, I was at my heaviest, I smoked, and I drank a ton of energy drinks. I also worked overnight, every night, while in college. After an unfortunate accident (broken foot), I had my blood pressure taken in the ER. The nurse took it, blinked a few times, and took it again. I turned around and looked at the monitor and it was 220/110. The doctor, after talking about my foot, gave me a ten second lecture, man to man, and wrote me a 30 day prescription. His exact words were, "If you want to live, go talk to your PCP about this."
I quit smoking immediately, gave up energy drinks (later all soda as well), quit my night jobs, and lost 100 lbs. While I eventually gained back about 80 of those lbs, the other lifestyle changes stuck.
Unfortunately, my blood pressure always hovered in the 150-160/90-100 range. My PCP placed me on multiple blood pressure medications, and over the next six years it remained stubbornly high.
I take my blood pressure multiple times a day to understand how various foods, exercise and stressors affect me. The bottom line is that my job is stressful, and I was routinely coming home from work in what would be described as "hypertensive urgency". I'm in constant fear of having a stroke, or some horrible medical emergency, and dying at age 30.
After roughly two months of proper Na/K balance, hard workouts and a general focus on mindfulness and meditation, I'm routinely clocking in blood pressure around 130/80. Losing about 40 lbs has probably helped, but regular exercise seems to have the biggest effect.
I don't know how to brag about blood pressure to my friends and family, so I gotta do it here.
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