https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD011737.pub2/full
Sue I dont believe it would be right to discuss such personal information openly, I would feel uncomfortable doing so.
Thank you Simon, my brother has a dilated aorta, probably genetic from my father who died from an aneurysm of the aorta. Mine has been checked via ultrasound and seem normal. Hoping when my brother has his aortic valve replacement done this month they can do something to reinforce the dilation. That and his tripple bypass he is duly concerned.
Sadly a few people die each year from a faulty artery un diagnosed in many cases but as I showed its a tiny increase in blood pressure well below a critical pressure point.
Thats quite some report Jane, 2nd one, it would take an age to go over all the details but I did see they included Ancel Keys’ 7 country study. That has been well and trully de bunked as Keys simply removed data that did not fit his hypothosis, the inclusion of such poor research would that alone call into question the whole document.
A very recent piece of research and I would stress for a certain phenotype only at this point showed people on a carnivor diet for many years had extemely high LDL cholesterol, in the top 1% of the top 10% of Americans. The prof in charge stated they should all be in ITU but when they carried out CT angiograms their arteries were clear of plaque occusions, the exact opposite of what would be expected. As I said this is for a specific group of lean mass hyper responders (LMHR) as they are referred to. However it does throw light on the LDL hypothysis, this research was crowd funded by citizen science therefore outside of any pharma influence. The results were also cross checked from another study of very similar non LMHR and they had worse outcomes than the people with really really high LDL. I would say the diet of the LMHR’s is very low in carbohydrates and therefore sugars from all sorces.
Research has shown the inner most lining of arteries is the glycocalyx, very tiny lining but the effect of a teflon coating in your arteries eg nothing sticks to arterial walls if the glycocalyx is in good condition. If not then the next layer, the endothelium can have small damage and tiny gaps can appear from the result of inflamation (posdibly via a leaky gut) thats not supposed to happen so the bodies first line of defence is cholesterol to plug the gaps, the body can then bring in calcium to form a stronger repair all the time slightly narrowing the artery. If fluid from the outer layers of the artery leaks through and meets blood, foam cells are formed and a blood clot results. If the blood clot becomes unstable and breaks up then they can move to the heart or brain and cause a heart attack or stroke.
What affects the glycocalyx the most? Smoking, lots of focus on the lungs but there wasnt on the glycocalyx because it was only discovered in 2003! The way the labs prepared the arteried for pathology destroyed the delicate fibres so they didnt know it existed.
The HDL/ triglyceride ratio is deemed a good way to look at risk of a cardio vascular event but far better is a CT angiogram. I had a CT calcium scan that the doctor said was normal ( great detail?? ) but that would only show up if calcium were present, far better is a CT angiogram as that would show narrowing that could be from non calcium source so givkng a years earlier view.
The Zoe gut scientists are looking at the gut microbiome in great detail and some food addditives do cause leaky gut, that in short means some of the contents of the gut leaking into other parts of the body and hence could be linked with atherosclerosis. Processed foods have lots of these things in them like carrageenan to name just one that they know causes leaky gut.
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Had a doctor’s RDV at the health centre this morning for a 3-month repeat high blood pressure prescription and sat in the waiting room outside my doctor’s room. Another doctor, who I didn’t know, came over and asked my name and then invited me into his room saying he was standing-in for my doctor who was absent.
However, my name sounded like another patient’s name and it wasn’t me he was waiting for. He made enquiries and said that my doctor wasn’t in today and there was no record of my RDV.
It was fortuitous that he came to speak to me as I’d be anxiously frustrating about my BP prescription wondering where my doctor was - there is no central receptionist! He wrote out a prescription for me but at the same time he gave me a self-assessment form for measuring blood pressure which he said to give to my doctor the next time I saw him.
It’s a good move on the part of the health centre in asking for such information from its patients. I’ve never been told why my BP was higher than normal, so maybe we can make some progress in maybe identifying better ways of controlling it.
Has anyone seen such self-assessment forms as this one? First time for me.
I haven’t had a nice piece of paper like that but been asked to do a similar thing. Have you got a BP machine?
I have an Omron wrist monitor…
With medication, and when at rest/relaxed, my BP is usually around 130 over 70 which I think is OK, and it’s been that way for the last 30 years, from 52 to 82. When my BP goes up, it’s due to anxiety or concentrating heavily, but also when shoulder/neck muscles are hard, painful and cold, when it can rise to 150 over 80. Sometimes a little higher.
When it’s 150 over 80 or higher I relax body & soul and it comes back down.
When I met my new doctor for the first time a few months ago, I told him my BP rises with anxiety, but he wasn’t happy about that and changed my prescription from Icaz 5mg to Ramipril 12.5mg which blurred my vision (side effect) so I reverted back to Icaz.
Hope to have a fuller discussion about BP once I have submitted my BP self-assessment form.
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You might want to consider getting a monitor that uses a cuff on your upper arm - I believe they are more accurate than the wrist type which according to this article can read high:
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The BHF has a list of recommended monitors on its website.
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I sent my wrist one back, absolute pile of crap and I did comparrisons against my cuff type.
Blood pressure rises are the indicator of an issue and not the issue itself. 30mm of mercury is a tiny increase in pressure and the burst pressure of arteries is way over 1100mm of mercury.
But they have medication to lower it so thats what the do but its pretty well not doing anything to help the route cause. That said it rises for most people as they age. Tiny capillaries are unable to take the blood cells so signals the heart to work harder to push blood down tje capillaries to reach other cells etc
I’ll be seeing my new doctor regularly 4 times a year to renew my prescription, and for him to check my BP. He said to bring the wrist monitor along next time to compare with his upper arm cuff machine.
After 30 years of using wrist monitors, I know when my BP is too high even if a precise & accurate reading is not achievable. I also find them easier and more convenient to use!
Being the anxious type, I bought one of these GSR2 biofeedback machines (then as a wooden/brass prototype, many years ago) to help relax body & mind, and it works! I tested it once by reducing its tone rate to a standstill, just by thinking ‘relax’, and then let an arousing thought enter my mind and immediately the tone rate went up to a fast and loud high-pitched tone. Presumably, my BP went up as well!
Good for relaxation, mind control and lowering BP!
You moisten 2 fingers, place them on the electrodes, and a low tone will be heard. You turn a small wheel to raise the tone to a medium rate level, or higher, and then relax & concentrate on trying to slow down the tone, preferably to a stop, when you should be completely relaxed.
We have both brought BP monitors home for week-long testing morning and night. Even the cuff types are unreliable and suffer poor reproducibility, and at best are like licking your fingertip to see which way the wind is blowing. These were in one case Siemens branded equipment to, and not just some cheap junk.
My old doctor of many many years used a sphygmomanometer, and one day I took my wrist monitor along for comparison. He was satisfied that although its reading was inaccurate it was sufficiently on the right side to be safe!
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Yes indeed, I adopt the forget the first measurement. Take 3 more and average. How frequently are doctors and hospital machines tested and calibrated one asks? Might not all be down to white coat syndrome?
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You win this week’s Spelling Award! 
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Yes that’s the advice I was given as well.
I think it’s the overall trend the quacks are interested in not necessarily precise measurements. Lots of things can push your reading up as has already been mentioned.
And there was me thinking how do they get a blood pressure reading from your sphincter
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Mine hit the roof for the 1st time after my covid redundancy was announced. Felt very hot and clamy needed to sit down and do controlled breathing,