High blood pressure

JJeenn · #1 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 10:20 AM

I have just been diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on Altace.

I'm only 25 and I'm feeling really old! The only people I know with high blood pressure are 60+ years old. Is it common for type 1s to have high blood pressure? I don't have any risk factors other than diabetes and being slightly overweight. I've had "borderline" high blood pressure for years so I should have seen it coming. Anyone know of anything I can do to try and not have to take medication? Blood pressure is still high after four days on Altace ... anyone know how long it's supposed to take to kick in fully?

lgvincent · #2 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 10:24 AM

It's possible you've been given the medication to protect your kidneys. I started taking Monopril in 1996 not because I had high blood pressure but because it was helpful in protecting the kidneys from damage.

JJeenn · #3 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 10:29 AM

My doctor did mention the kidney protection as well, but he said he was putting me on it because of high blood pressure. My blood pressure was 170/80 in his office and I'd been getting high readings measuring it at the pharmacy, and he'd gotten several borderline high readings before.

dmbfan_21 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 11:01 AM

My BP is what my doctor calls borderline. I am 28 and I usually read about 120-130/75 when she checks it. She has mentioned the possibility of going on some type of medication, but I have avoided adding that to my daily regime.

owlyn · #5 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 11:04 AM

Hey, don't complain. Be thankful there is medicine you can take to save your life, that it has very few side effects, and that it is reasonably priced. You could be dealing with much worse.

Any day above ground is a good one.

JJeenn · #6 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owlyn

Hey, don't complain. Be thankful there is medicine you can take to save your life, that it has very few side effects, and that it is reasonably priced. You could be dealing with much worse.

Any day above ground is a good one.

Other than my frowny face emoticon I wasn't actually complaining anywhere in there ... just asking questions. I am very thankful it's not something worse or untreatable.

BriOnH · #7 (**permalink**) 06-02-2007, 12:34 PM

It takes up to a month to fully kick in. Be glad you are on it. High blood pressure * High Blood Sugar = cell death.

DeusXM · #8 (**permalink**) 06-03-2007, 07:38 AM

Could also just be generally genetic. I'm 23 and I've been on enalapril for the last 4 years. Everyone on my father's side of the family has hypertension.

Other options you can use to help are to exercise regularly and lower your sodium intake. However your blood pressure is pretty much set by your body so these are only small-scale measures you can take. On the plus side, despite what everyone says, caffeine has a relatively impact on your blood pressure so unless you're drinking gallons of coffee and Coke you won't necessarily need to cut down.

I know what you mean about 'feeling old' though. At the age of 19 I had diabetes and high blood pressure - I felt like I was already middle-aged!

mg_2204 · #9 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JJeenn

The only people I know with high blood pressure are 60+ years old.

A friend of mine is only in her young 30s and has high blood pressure. It runs in her family.

For a while my BP was around 198/99. Eeek!! Now it's back to something around 115/75. Exercise really improved BP.

sweetcheeks · #10 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 06:58 AM

honey dont feel bad i was diagnosed with HBP at the young age of 19. and i was only a few lbs overweight then

i resisted for years to go to the doc cause i had no insurance....

my mom or dad dont even have HBP yet lol...

sadly enough most people will be on BP meds the rest of their life.

notme · #11 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 10:16 AM

I have always had low blood pressure. My Father tends to run low also. My Mother has always (until bypass surgery) had high blood pressure. I had low blood pressure during five pregnancies and all my life until my forties. After thirteen years of diabetes, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I was on three different meds until my doctor found one that did the job of all three. I now take Lotrel once a day and my blood pressure is good.

Hang in there....this one is an easy fix.

JJeenn · #12 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notme

I have always had low blood pressure. My Father tends to run low also. My Mother has always (until bypass surgery) had high blood pressure. I had low blood pressure during five pregnancies and all my life until my forties. After thirteen years of diabetes, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I was on three different meds until my doctor found one that did the job of all three. I now take Lotrel once a day and my blood pressure is good.

Hang in there....this one is an easy fix.

Is there some way that diabetes causes high blood pressure, something high blood sugar does to your system? When I look at lists of risk factors the only one I have is diabetes (I could lose a few pounds but am not obese by any stretch of the word).

Yesterday I checked and my BP was normal, but I seem to be having some side effects from Altace that are making things difficult. I'm going to ask my doctor if I can either try a lower dose (he started me on quite a high dose) or else try a different medication.

Thanks everyone for your replies! I'm glad to know I'm not the only young adult out there with high blood pressure.

notme · #13 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 02:01 PM

Diabetes is definitely a cause of high blood pressure. This can be from kidney damage or uncontrolled blood sugar. Sometimes it is due to nerve damage.

I am on a medication called Lotrel. It has been wonderful as I was on three different medications with unpredictable results. I have had no side effects from lotrel.

Exercise is the best thing you can do for blood pressure.

BlueSky · #14 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notme

Diabetes is definitely a cause of high blood pressure. ...

In 95% of high blood pressure cases, there is no known cause. Which is why it is refered to as essential or primary hypertension. In the remaining 5% of cases, secondary hypertension is caused by another medical condition or medication.

To the extent that diabetes causes kidney damage, which in turn causes high blood pressure, I suppose you could say that diabetes causes high blood pressure. But high blood sugar on it's own doesn't have this effect. And there is no reason why a healthy, complication-free T1 diabetic should have high blood pressure.

T2 is a bit different, though. High-carb eating has been linked to increased blood pressure. It is thought to be caused by high levels of insulin, which stimulate the sympatheic nervous system and cause the heart to beat faster. If this is the case, one would expect insulin resistance, which is typical of T2, to have a similar effect.

There is another good reason to lay off the carbs ....

sweetcheeks · #15 (**permalink**) 06-05-2007, 02:03 AM

most diabetics (most being the keyword, not all of them) will have cholesterol, HBP problems... they kinda go hand in hand, if you have one, you have higher risk for the rest, so on and so forth.

There are plenty who go years and will only have on or the other, then boom they get the others regardless of there control.....

Blame that one on our bodies lol