Originally Posted by
genejockey
Ah, well, you see my hypertension is more genetic. In my 20s and 30s, I'd routinely have BP of 110/70. Late 40s it manifested itself . I told my doc I wanted to try lifestyle changes, and she said go ahead. I rode a lot of miles, ate bushels of salad, cut back on carbs, ate a lot of lean meat. Result? No change in the numbers. So we went with drugs.
We have about the same. But my hypertension came earlier, in my late 30's which can be attributed to lack of exercise, too much cholesterol in my diet, and tons of stress.
Lifestyle changes I did was get on leaner diet, exercise with cycling. Additionally, I also started mixing garlic on all my meals. Garlic helps lower BP. Ofc, quitting coffee. But I have other reasons for quitting coffee. My main reason for quitting coffee is dependency and headaches. Like drug addiction, I needed more and more dosage of caffeine. If I miss even just one cup in a day, I'll get a headache for the rest of the day.
Now my BP is back to teen days without drugs but can still reach 130/85 during high levels of stress. I can usually take it down if it starts to affect me by taking two cloves of fresh garlic. I hate taking drugs but mostly because I find them too expensive to be taking regularly so I'd rather suffer on the bike or trainer (few half hour HIIT sessions per week with recovery in between is good cure enough).