BP Tip
Here is an interesting thing for you to try... to lower your blood pressure without drugs. I had a mild hypertension (BP 140/90) not enough to worry about passing medical, but was on a minimal dose of anti-hypertensive.
Then one day my wife bought me a pack of nasal strips. You can get 'em at any drugstore or Walmart, usually in the allergy or sinus section. They look like bandaids, but have a soft spring core and they act by spreading your nostrils a bit apart, making the opening bigger. She bought them for me not because I snored, but because occasionally I'd wake up with a snort in the middle of the night and she wondered if I had a mild case of sleep apnea.
Well I thought that hokey... but glued one on and immediately was impressed at how much easier it was for me to breath. And I found that I could sleep the night thru without waking. And now I dream again (indicative of more REM sleep, which is good for you). And - get this - my BP is now 105/69 in the morning, 120/74 in the late afteroon, sans medication
So how do you explain this? Turns out that at least half of the people with hypertension have some degree of sleep apnea. When was it your doctor ever told you that?
But don't just take my word for it... I copied this from the internet, the abstract of a medical article:
The reference is:
# ^ Silverberg DS, Iaina A and Oksenberg A (January 2002). "Treating Obstructive Sleep Apnea Improves Essential Hypertension and Quality of Life". American Family Physicians 65 (2): 229-36. PMID 11820487.
And the abstract is:
From the Department of Nephrology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel.
[email protected]
"About one half of patients who have essential hypertension have obstructive sleep apnea, and about one half of patients who have obstructive sleep apnea have essential hypertension. A growing body of evidence suggests that obstructive sleep apnea is a major contributing factor in the development of essential hypertension. Despite many patients with obstructive sleep apnea having clear symptoms of the disorder, an estimated 80 to 90 percent of cases are undiagnosed. When physicians routinely seek the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea by asking patients (especially those with hypertension) three basic sleep-related questions about snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness and reports of witnessed apneic events, the number of cases diagnosed and treated increases by about eightfold. Eliminating snoring and occurrences of apneic-hypopneic episodes will dramatically improve patients' quality of sleep and eliminate excessive daytime sleepiness, which has a detrimental effect on general functioning. Increased alertness will reduce the likelihood that patients will be involved in motor vehicle crashes. In most studies in which blood pressure was measured following treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, daytime and nighttime blood pressure levels were found to decrease significantly. This decrease in blood pressure may also reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular complications. The key to the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea is physician knowledge about the disorder. The dramatic improvement in quality of life that occurs when patients are successfully treated for obstructive sleep apnea makes detecting and treating this disorder imperative."
It's worth a try for you. The lower your resting BP, the less chance of stroke, heard disease, etc.
Pete Roode
