46% of Americans Now Have High Blood Pressure (nbcnews.com) 295
"Millions more Americans will now be diagnosed with high blood pressure," reports NBC News, which describes the condition as "one of the leading killers around the world."
Anyone with blood pressure higher than 130/80 will be considered to have hypertension, or high blood pressure, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology said in releasing their new joint guidelines. "It's very clear that lower is better," said Dr. Paul Whelton of Tulane University, who chaired the committee that wrote the guidelines... 130/80 to 139/89 is now considered Stage 1 hypertension and anything 140/90 or above will be considered stage 2 hypertension...
"Rather than one in three U.S. adults having high blood pressure (32 percent) with the previous definition, the new guidelines will result in nearly half of the U.S. adult population (46 percent) having high blood pressure, or hypertension," the groups said in a joint statement... While people may be confused by the change, the heart experts said three years of reviewing the research showed that many fewer people die if high blood pressure is treated earlier. "We are comfortable with the recommendations. They are based on strong evidence," Whelton said.
Slashdot reader 140Mandak262Jamuna blames the pharmaceutical lobby, arguing that "a few years down the line, we all will be taking blood pressure medications," though Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who helped write the guidelines, claims there will only be a 1.9% increase.
The new guidelines recommend that everyone watch their diet and exercise, and that people with stage 1 hypertension should also first try eating less salt, more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains before taking blood pressure medications.
"Rather than one in three U.S. adults having high blood pressure (32 percent) with the previous definition, the new guidelines will result in nearly half of the U.S. adult population (46 percent) having high blood pressure, or hypertension," the groups said in a joint statement... While people may be confused by the change, the heart experts said three years of reviewing the research showed that many fewer people die if high blood pressure is treated earlier. "We are comfortable with the recommendations. They are based on strong evidence," Whelton said.
Slashdot reader 140Mandak262Jamuna blames the pharmaceutical lobby, arguing that "a few years down the line, we all will be taking blood pressure medications," though Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who helped write the guidelines, claims there will only be a 1.9% increase.
The new guidelines recommend that everyone watch their diet and exercise, and that people with stage 1 hypertension should also first try eating less salt, more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains before taking blood pressure medications.
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Millions more will be diagnosed now that the numbers have been adjusted to sell more prescriptions.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Controlling mild hypertension with prescriptions is a choice. You *can* do it with lifestyle changes.
I did it; I dropped my blood pressure from 128/86 to 105/60, without medication, through diet and exercise. It's not that hard, but the reason I succeeded where many like me fail is that as a geek measuring, tracking and evaluating data comes naturally to me. Measure everything; weigh your food, log it, analyze the results. If you try to obtain 100% of all your required nutrients without supplementation and within a wight maintenance level of calorie intake you're automatically forced to eat healthy.
Eating healthy and exercise in moderation will turn most borderline cases of hypertension around, but it takes some discipline.
Why did I bother? Becuase the consequences of hypertension really really suck. It's a disease with no symptoms but horrible complications. Think of all the things you consider as part of "aging" -- physical frailty, loss of memory and in some cases thinking ability. A lot of this isn't a result of the unavoidable genetics of aging; they're the result of things like heart attacks, strokes, and vascular dementia all of which are consequences of high blood pressure.
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Correction: mild hypertension can *sometimes* be controlled by choice. You make is sound like taking medication is for the dumb and lazy.
Look at the studies for the affects of salt on blood pressure. Some people can drop their pressure 3 points with reduced salt - for others, it doesn't change anything. The latest studies actually say that there is *no* benefit to severe salt restriction!
If you're fat, losing weight is always a good idea. I'm not. I'm actually borderline clinically under-weight. Losing
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I agree with most of what you're saying here. Notice also I qualified "hypertension": mild hypertension. And of course everyone's different. But a lot of the time people are less different than they think; they're just rationalizing their habits. People would rather think of themselves as special than as unsuccessful.
The power of lifestyle change is greatly underestimated, because so many people find it difficult. Certainly if you can't control your borderline hypertension with lifestyle change you *s
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Look at the studies for the affects of salt on blood pressure. Some people can drop their pressure 3 points with reduced salt - for others, it doesn't change anything.
The funny part is, the studies show that there is a minority of patients where removing dietary salt has a 10+ point difference, and those are the only patients who improve outcomes by reducing salt.
Reducing blood pressure by 3 points doesn't improve outcomes in the vast majority of patients; only patients who also have serious heart disease will have an improved outcome. If you have high blood pressure but don't have heart disease, your risk of death did not improve by lowering blood pressure 3 points; reg
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Weighing food is the big thing in what you said; most people would never be willing to do that, even if you convinced them it is life-or-death. People have a deeply held belief that they can measure portions with their eyeballs, and that they know what a good, morally upstanding portion size looks like!
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People have a deeply held belief that they can measure portions with their eyeballs
That's one of actually two important misconceptions. The other is that stomach fullness is reliable measure of how much you've eaten. Your belly only has three feedback settings: feed me now, you could eat a bit more, and if you eat more you're going to get sick.
Recent research suggests that it's the amount of time you spend eating, and the amount of chewing you do that affects perceptions of how much you've eaten. I've confirmed this myself. Eating slower and chewing more definitely creates the subject
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Just give salt once in fifteen days. Drop one meal once in a few days. Stop snacking and munching junk food between meals. Food control is possible. Most of my aunts and uncles do this salt free diet, but the reason they give is strange, "Going salt free on shravanam days of the month will please Lord Shiva or Giving up the evening meal on Thursdays will get you brownie points for Shri Satya Sai Baba. The reasoning l
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason most people 'fail' is because they don't see results immediately. They lack patience, discipline and proper motivation (eg. it's not "i want to be sexy" or "handsome"). I was like this, my GF is like this, I have couple of friends that mentioned it.. etc. It's hard to simulate physical labor and "enjoy" it, or at least.. stick with it as a lifestyle.
Modern exercise is a simulation of real physical work which comes natural to us. Most people can do physical work, the work itself is a motivation and whatever the product of that work is... but when you take away that work (hence the product) and put a person on a treadmill, there is no natural goal anymore.. and health seems so abstract and far away that most people give up after an hour or so of running aimlessly ( so they feel ). And you have to plan for this, schedule it.. gym memberships etc. which adds to an extra headache.
I for one *hate* gyms. I don't like sharing space with other people, sharing sweat especially. I don't like locker rooms, public showers etc. either. You will not see me in a gym.
Point is. You don't need calculations, statistics and mathematics to stick with exercise. That might work for you, but I wouldn't agree it works for most people.
What people need is a sense of accomplishment, and health + muscle mass etc. to be a CONSEQUENCE, and a side effect, not the main goal.
If it's like this, and if people do physical labor for proper reasons, then the boredom, and lack of motivation sill not be an issue anymore.
> Controlling mild hypertension with prescriptions is a choice. You *can* do it with lifestyle changes.
This not being the common sense is what the problem is with modern society, especially western ones where this way of thinking seem to be prevalent.
I'm sure if we manage to not kill ourselves, this will be one of the things mentioned in the history books as that retarded thing people from 2000s thought it's ok.
Like we think that people 2000 years ago were stupid, ignorant, barbaric, etc... this is going down in history as one of the things stupid people of 21 century did.
Stuff yourself with crap fake food full of chemicals that are not supposed to be there (preservatives, colorings, etc.) that, naturally, effect body chemistry as you're ingesting these, and then take more chemicals to try to fix the consequence of your bad diet and lack of physical movement... and then go about thinking it's actually normal to live like this.
Good luck to you all.
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Modern medicine isn't just going to keep you alive for another year; it's going to keep you alive for decades in bad health.
By the way I don't deny myself anything. I do everything in moderation -- even moderation. Yesterday I went out to a fried clam shack and ate 4000 calories worth of fried clams in one sitting. But my average calorie intake for the week is still under 2000, because I planned for my fried seafood bender accordingly.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Informative)
Depends on where the clams were harvested. In the US states regulate shellfishing; in my state (where the clams were harvested), shellfish beds are mapped and classified; some are entirely prohibited, others are entirely permitted, and some (where fecal-oral route pathogens in the water are a concern) require treatment in a depuration plant.
Small amounts of bioaccumulating toxins like metals aren't any reason to avoid an occasional shellfish feast here, although you might not want to eat them every day. I might avoid shellfish altogether when visiting China with its poor environmental practices and lax health regulation enforcement.
The biggest concern with occasional fried clam is exposure to rancid fat -- because that's something you can be continually exposed to in many places if you habitually eat fried food from not-very-good restaurants.
I have no problem with GMO grains, but I consume grains overall in moderation because they pack a large calorie wallop for their limited nutrient payload. That makes it hard to incorporate large amount of grain (GMO or not) into a calorie limited nutrient complete diet. As for health advice, I stick to information in peer-reviewed literature review papers in high impact factor journals, plus common sense.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Informative)
Yor any other bottom feeders. These concentrate the toxins in the environment and are horribly bad for you.
This is the same moronic bullshit that uneducated fisherman think up. What part of the food chain concentrates toxins? Is it "bottom-feeders?" Is it known to science?! Is it a mystery where we can just make up any random answer and it might be true? No. No, no, no, no, and no.
Predators are the animals that concentrate toxins. Bottom feeders only concentrate toxins in very narrow conditions, for example in a bay with large amounts of water pollution. Predators concentrate all of the environmental toxins, including ones from bottom feeders!
So you have some idiot fisherman accusing carp of concentrating toxins, but carp eat mostly plants and insects and are very low on the food chain; they only concentrate a little bit of toxins, mostly because of their long lifespan. A trout, that eats mostly meat, is concentrating way more toxins than a carp!
This is why fish like Red Snapper, which are bottom feeders, have less toxins than Tuna; they're both carnivores, but tuna are higher on the food chain; more of their prey are also themselves predators, whereas most of the prey of a Snapper are small herbivores.
Most bottom feeders are omnivores, they are not very high on the food chain.
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Clams are delicious and they're not going to kill you in small doses.
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and being able to live without medical intervention
And your point would differ from ine how?
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Imagine the flip-side. You give up drinking like a fish and try to eat a bit healthier and you get some exercise every once in a while and you STILL can go on that cruise or that vacation and you can even pig out occasionally at family BBQs.
i've known people who have died at far too young of an age and if they were still around they would still be able to enjoy those things.
Some died unexpectedly. Others died after long illnesses which weren't exactly pleasant. If we could ask them, would they say it was
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You're pushing a false dichotomy and it's bullshit.
You can let "loose on" special occasions without completely destroying the efficacy of your normal routine.
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As I say elsewhere, the *best* place to start if you want to change your lifestyle is accepting what you are like now. If you feel bad about how much you weigh, you'll avoid weighing yourself.
In order to gain control over anything you have to measure it. If you have strong emotional reactions to the results of a measurement, that will skew your measurements or make you avoid measuring at all.
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My brother has been seriously overweight for years. My weight's in the low-to-normal range. He's 4 years younger than I, is a vegetarian, and doesn't smoke. I smoke and am omnivorous. Yet he's the one who's already been on medication for high BP and acid reflux for the last 5-6 years. I think the difference is compounded by the facts that (a) I live in Europe and get 30 days off per year, while he gets no paid time off, and (b) the difference in the quality of the food. Every time I visit the US, I am alway
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It is. So you fit it into your calorie budget.
First, I don't bother with bad, or even mediocre pizza. At 272 calories/slice for plain jane cheese it'd damn well better be awesome pizza. Second, I plan ahead by reducing my calorie intake in the run up to my splurge. Here's a secret from the ancient Greek philosphers known as the stoics: a little self-denial makes things taste better. If you've been fasting, plain bread is delicious. Pizza eaten after a fast is indescribable.
Call this sensory hacking
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How old are you?
Because I guarantee you the beer and pizza will catch up with you eventually. I actually love beer, but loathe pizza which makes for a strange health case.
Salads and vegetables and fruits as well as a good dose of protein in the form of meat actually make me feel better than eating crap like pizza - and I also feel healthier without the beer, but I do love it so much.
And yeah, sometimes I hate eating my vegetables but I feel better overall when I eat them.
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There are lots and lots of flavours other than sweet, salty, and fatty. It's really unfortunate that so many Americans are conditioned to think there aren't.
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We were told, back then, to believe what numbers they said. Now we're told to believe these new numbers because they "know better" in these enlightened times.
WHY didn't they know better back then to see that x-weight + x-diet + x-lifestyle killed x-people with >130/80 BP?
It's all statistics, and simply counting heads never changes.
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The recommendations probably had a measure of "what's achievable" vs "what's statistically the best" for the cost.
e.g. People give up when given targets that are to high, so if a target of 140/90 reduces mortality and complications of HBP by 70%, but a target of 129/80 reduces by 60% due to less participation, the less aggressive target is qualitatively better for overall health. (numbers drawn out of the air).
What's changed is HBP is not an old man's disease anymore, it's recognized as an issue needing t
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No, you were told by the researchers to ignore the media and talk to your doctor, and wait for the numbers to make it to your doctor.
The media told you to believe the numbers they were making up, because golly, those researchers know better and you should listen to the media to know what the researchers said, because gosh all that science is hard to understand!
For example, they said that preliminary research showed that some forms of fat were really harmful, but they didn't know which kinds yet. And that it
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healthy working hours, vacation time, enough time off to cook healthy food and spend time with family = less stress.
In the short term, stressful situations can cause your blood pressure to rise. But over the long run, there is no causal link established between stress and permanently high blood pressure.
Now get back to work.
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There is plenty of evidence that long-term stress increases cortisol, leading to obesity, encourages over-drinking and over-eating, leading to obesity. Obesity --> hypertension.
There may not be a literal direct route, but long-term stress is bad. Plenty of studies have shown that long-term stress shortens life.
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Just because stress has been demonstrated to be harmful does not imply that your claims above were also true. Why argue with somebody pointing out that you made technical claims that are outside of what is actually known to be true? You claimed it was "the science," but it wasn't.
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This -- healthy working hours, vacation time, enough time off to cook healthy food and spend time with family = less stress....
I think some Europeans figured that out a long time ago. They also take flak from Americans for being lazy & unproductive.
We like our workforce to feel a bit desperate.
So I guess what we need is a health care system that ensures that anyone needing to pay for medical attention needs to have a full-time job with a health plan. They also need to suspect they'll be RIFFed if they're not putting in 60+ hrs/wk. Not saying that's how it is .... it's just a plan.
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Most Americans are jealous of those who work a 40-hour week and take time off every year.
BTW, productivity isn't that different in Europe -- Europeans tend to actually work 7-8 hours (not play on their phones), then go home and live life. A lot of time spent by Americans at "work" is spend slacking off -- but anyone who works hard, then leaves after 7 hours would be seen as not pulling the wagon enough.
Re: Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
"How about campaigning for affordable healthy food?"
How about just buying affordable healthy food? Buy a chicken, roast it. Buy some frozen peas. Buy a cabbage. Boil them. Buy sweet potato and pumpkin. roast them(no fat).
Which part of that is beyond the culinary abilities of a 10 year old? Which part is expensive?
Re: Well... (Score:4, Informative)
Only a small percent of the people with high blood pressure actually benefit from salt reduction. In the median patient, reducing dietary salt intake does not improve health outcomes .
This is well known, though cue 5 people claiming to be RNs to respond claiming I'm murdering people by encouraging you to look up the actual risks of salt and high blood pressure and to ask the question, "Does it say salt is bad for everybody, or only for a minority of patients?"
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Indeed. Add to that, my doctor told me I'm actually sodium deficient, and I need to eat MORE salty snacks. Despite my hypertension.
Re: Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to add a LOT of salt to a real recipe to get it to resemble anything pre-packaged or bought at a restaurant. If you cook for yourself, "normal" people tend to think you're on some sort of radical low salt diet.
Sometimes I need to consume extra electrolytes if I drink too much water to flush down my daily pharmacy with.
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Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
People like to complain about how awful the American health care system is, but I'd argue that it's easily one of the best in the world. I can't imagine many other systems that could manage to keep alive a group of people as chronically unhealthy as the Americans. That the first thought is that this is being done so that there can be more prescriptions handed out for medication shows just how unhealthy the thinking about health care in America has become. The summary even ends by stating that medication isn't recommended for people who now fall into this new category of high blood pressure, but the first thought is to reach for a pill to fix things.
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To be clear no one has ever questioned the American healthcare's efficacy at keeping people physically healthy.
The only black mark against it is it not only fails to keep them financially healthy but it is outright financially crippling.
Like everything in America, fantastic if you have the privilege. Now give me another prescription, I have insurance baby!
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The problem is that too many American's let their health go to shit and then demand some kind of pill to fix the problem.
Hate to point out the obvious, but the true problem is Americans being too fucking lazy to maintain their health through diet and exercise. If they simply did this, there would be no reason to be demanding magical pills to fix a preventable problem.
High blood pressure is something that can be treated with changes to diet and exercise for the vast majority of people. Using medication should only be reserved for a very limited number of cases or for people who have particular medical conditions that make other approaches impossible.
Those making these guideline changes already know that Americans aren't going make any changes to diet and exercise. They rarely do it no matter how life-threatening the prognosis is. I fully believe this new guideline was driven by Big Pharma who will rake i
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anti-smoking prevention? You must be joking. Smoking rates for Europe and Japan are MUCH higher than the US. It amazes me that that doesn't translate to worse outcomes. I suspect it does and nobody wants to admit it.
There really isn't anything wrong with American food labeling. It's quite good actually. It's just that Americans don't actually want to bother. "Better" labeling won't help. It will just get ignored like the old labeling.
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List of countries by cigarette consumption per person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The US is middle of the pack, not too dissimilar to several European countries. I must admit I'm surprised. Places like the UK where big gains have been made must have started from a much worse position.
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This is what American food looks like: https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-m... [gannett-cdn.com]
Here is another example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/w... [wikimedia.org]
Another: https://static1.squarespace.co... [squarespace.com]
Here is what American Food looks like in a big city: https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/... [staticflickr.com]
Here is what the regional cuisine looks like in the part of America that I live in: (this is the most popular restaurant in my neighborhood, though not the most expensive) https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.c... [yelpcdn.com]
Here is what American food looks like in a "red s
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He's a jackass. His "red state" example was obviously from some sort of fair or festival with a bunch of carnie food booths. Fairs are like that everywhere, not just red states. European carnie food is probably like that too.
Life is a disease (Score:3, Funny)
Death is the cure
Chang your diet, change your life (Score:5, Insightful)
At age 25, I was 6' 3", 160 lbs, and exercised. I had high blood pressure and the doc wanted to put me on medication. I thought I was too young for high blood pressure medication. I instead started eating salads instead of sandwiches, quit eating deli meat, and avoid processed and high sodium foods. I'm now 35, still 160 lbs, and my blood pressure is well within a normal range. You don't need pills. Eat healthy instead.
Re:Chang your diet, change your life (Score:2)
You don't need pills. Eat healthy instead.
You do need pills if eating healthy doesn't lower your BP. Some people have ideopathic (doctor speak for: buggered if I know) hypertension.
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Actually, it's okay. You're just so used to fat westerners, your perception has been warped.
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2003nl/jul/030700puhowdoigainweight.htm
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6'3" 160lbs is exactly what I'd expect the average weight to be of a person that height, even today! ... in North Korea!
Re: Chang your diet, change your life (Score:4, Insightful)
What the fuck are you talking about. It's exactly perfectly in the middle of the healthy BMI range. The fact that you think otherwise it's quite telling.
Absolute Joke (Score:2)
Let's just lower the standard so we spend more money on treating nothing.
Might as well lower the weight and BMI that define obesity. God knows how many die each year from being a lard butt.
Re:Absolute Joke (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Absolute Joke (Score:4, Insightful)
try eating less salt (Score:3, Informative)
Let me fix that for you:
try eating less crap! try to find a less hostile working environment. and most important, don't take on debt.
Breath slow and deep. Learn how to work a defibrillator.
You're welcome
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less hostile working environment == not I.T. in these United States
okay, got it
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You might find that if you wipe the derp off your chin and shave your neckbeard, people will direct less hostility at you.
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Of course there isn't. But there are also no foods that contain "reasonable" amount of salt.
Hysterical Hypertension (Score:2, Funny)
Orgasms lower blood pressure. Americans aren't getting enough sex. Prescribe vibrators.
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You are going to lose your medical licence...and likely catch something.
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Orgasms lower blood pressure. Americans aren't getting enough sex. Prescribe vibrators.
Prescribe a real sex life. Nothing beats the real thing.
Science says the health benefits don't even require a partner, simply completing the deed with frequency brings the benefits.
Stay away from grains... (Score:3, Insightful)
Vegetables sure, but grains? No way. Try looking into Keto; it virtually guarantees lower blood pressure.
Pharma Not Getting Rich On This (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but Big Pharma isn't getting rich on this one.
I've been taking Lisinopril for high blood pressure for a couple years now and a 90 day supply (1 x 20 mg tablet) costs me $3.00 with insurance. Without insurance it is about 3x-4x higher, from what I've seen.
At 1/3 of a penny per dose, *my cost*, that isn't exactly high profit margin. U.S. Patents expired in 2002, meaning right now it is one of the cheapest medications available. Over the counter aspirin costs more.
they get you on the preex list for stuff like this (Score:3)
they get you on the preexist list for stuff like this
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Many, if not most, are not able to tolerate those older generic medications. Also, many of the older medications have been shown either not to increase or even to decrease lifespan. It is an interesting fact that few blood pressure medications achieve a lifespan increase.
The only one that I've found to lower my pressure while not suppressing my heart rate during exercise (and thus causing me to pass out) is Losartan. It costs $60 per month or $720 per year.
At that rate, my medication is around low-midrange
Now the nutrition experts emerge again (Score:4, Insightful)
And tell you that you eat all wrong and you have to eat ... well, whatever the latest eating craze is today. Eat this, eat that, and avoid this because it's poison. No matter that the next person recommends eating exactly that and only that, because what you just suggested is killing you within the year.
You know what? Take your eating disorder in the making and stuff it. As we can see right now, whenever we manage to get healthier, we just move the goalpost on unhealthy. Lower number of heart diseases? Just invent a few new ones!
We're getting older than ever before. And we die when we get to age 80 from diseases that didn't exist before because, guess what, we died from other diseases that we don't die from anymore. This is a GOOD thing people. Going on a diet that won't make you die at 80 because what you're eating now is slowly (insert bad thing for your body here) isn't going to do you any good if it gives you (bad thing that makes your organ fail) at 50. Then you won't die at 80 from (bad thing) but at 50 from (other bad thing).
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Now the nutrition experts emerge again And tell you that you eat all wrong and you have to eat ... well, whatever the latest eating craze is today.
The problem isn't nutrition experts, it's people who can't tell the difference between someone on late night TV trying to sell a snake-oil diet and actual nutrition experts.
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You're right, I should've nutrition "experts" in quotes. But I guess you got what I wanted to say absolutely right
I'm pretty sure my blood pressure has ticked up (Score:2, Funny)
under the current administration. There's only one person to blame for that...
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Yes, you.
Leftists seem to think that perchance they didn't call people racists, sexists, homophobes, and Islamophobes enough. Maybe if you just verbally shat upon the stupid, uneducated, hateful, and soon-to-be-extinct white masses in flyover country who put Trump over the top, you could have shamed enough of these irredeemable rubes into voting for a party and an ideology that clearly hates their guts.
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And you think that someone like Trump and the Republicans have anything but contempt for you?
Never underestimate the power of denial...
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and soon-to-be-extinct white masses
Is that a threat!?
http://images2.fanpop.com/imag... [fanpop.com]
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There's only one person to blame for that...
... and he sure does look sexy riding that pony around topless all the time!
Everything causes cancer (Score:2)
In a world where everyone has high blood pressure I suspect we will soon be seeing an uptick of nobody taking such diagnosis seriously amid general growing mistrust of the medical industrial complex for grievances real and imagined.
Ultimately even if you ignore studies showing half of all academic papers are bullshit and work under the assumption there is technical merit to the conclusions it still might be prudent to consider real world implications and take a different tact than California did when declar
All bullshit (Score:2, Interesting)
physicians don't even have a standardised way to measure blood pressure. One measurement won't tell you much. You can't say my blood pressure
is x/y. it can vary a lot and always depends on the circumstance it is measured. To say my blood pressure dropped by 3 points is stupid, because
my estimate is that the margine of error is at least, depending on the method, between 5 and 10 mm/Hg and not only because of the error of the devices, but also because your physician is a factor for error. Add to that, the var
Trucking Industry Impacts: (Score:2)
Truckers who drive semis and other large vehicles already have to have a medical certificate part of which is to not have high blood pressure over certain limits. This is to avoid strokes and heart attacks causing them to lose control of their vehicles. This is probably a reasonable precaution.
The allowable levels currently set by regulation rather than the AHA guidelines, but there may be pressure from this to tighten those limits. Personally, I don't see this as needed.
Are truckers who have 130/80 BP real
This goes hand in hand with obesity (Score:2)
Well it worked for Lipitor (Score:2)
Big Pharma is very good at scaring people into thinking they are sick. And the magical cure always seems to be some sort of pill. What big pharma is even better at is coming up with so called "maintenance drugs" that never actually cure anything. Lipitor is a prime example of this. You can take it for 10 years and it will help keep your cholesterol down but the moment you go off it your counts go right back where they were when you started. In other words, you are stuck taking this drug for life. Blood pres
They did this with obesity in 1998 (Score:2)
I don't mind that they're doing this to encourage people to stay in a healthy range [nih.gov] as they collect new data. I just wish there was a way the could do it without redefining what certain words mean.
Boom! There go your insurance premiums (Score:2)
This is nothing more than a scam to get you to cough up more money in insurance premiums. It's about as useful as having non-engineers decide on CAFE standards.
Re:wrong diet (Score:5, Insightful)
That's complete bullshit. There's zero science behind that.
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Let me know when the panic hits beer.
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There are mostly only 2 types of American beer; the fancy expensive stuff which is made with quality organic ingredients, and the cheap stuff made from malted rice.
Re:wrong diet (Score:5, Insightful)
>That's complete bullshit. There's zero science behind that.
Indeed. You don't need frankenwheat to elevate your blood sugar. Regular wheat will do.
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There is actually a ton of science behind it. I don't have time to dig much up, but a quick Google search returns, for example:
https://www.ruled.me/can-low-c... [ruled.me]
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Personally, I look at the domain name of your source, and choose not to click on it. It isn't a journal, it isn't an educational institution, it isn't an encyclopedia, and it even has a propaganda-friendly name!
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Look, if you are not inclined to do your own research then so be it. I don't have any motivation to convince you otherwise. I have read through hundreds of studies and attended numerous talks from actual doctors and scientists on this topic.
And don't get me wrong. Carbs are not inherently evil, but in the quantities that most Americans eat them it is just not good for our bodies. For some people they get away with it, and it probably depends on what they are actually eating and their genetic makeup.
But if y
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Oh, I misunderstood then. Yes, pretty much all wheat is bad, GMO or not. Well, perhaps if you could actually dig up whatever wheat was 1,000 years ago before we made it so pleasant and easy to digest it wouldn't be so bad...
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the "wheat" in most U.S. products is not that, not even the same species
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Wheat is also not one of the crops that is typically GMO! lol
From wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
As for "not even the same species,":
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No, you need to improve your reading comprehension and research skills. The wheat we have now took chromosomes from several of the species in your article and combined and mutated into a high yield strain the 1960s, work of Norman Borlaug.
I repeat, the common wheat in the USA now is NOT any of the thousands of year old wheat types in your cut-and-paste.
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Monsanto's alien organisms need a living human host to gestate in in order to reach maturity. Telling humans not to eat them is effectively genocide!
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Regardless of your lack of understanding of the science, here in the US we have organic vegetables for sale at all the major groceries, and even more at the small local ones!
BTW, the reason that organic is popular is because it is bad for the environment to dump all those chemicals that kills things into the ground! You have less weeds in the field, in the short term, but you also kill the established water plants while fertilizing the "pioneer" weeds!
Also, exposure to concentrated pesticides causes serious
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Do I have to subscribe through my doctor's office, or can I get a discount rate from Publisher's Clearinghouse?
Hilarious (Score:3)
"Congratulations! You now have a "pre-existing condition", so please enjoy the massive increase in your health insurance premiums!" - literally every insurance company in America
I find it hilarious that this got modded as "Flamebait", as if insurance companies don't list high blood pressure as a pre-existing condition (and don't increase your premiums for it). They sure as shit do. Ask me how I know.