My feeling is that although normal healthy blood vessels may be able to take a high pressure (don’t forget there will be a range of pressure limits they can take due to organic variability) if for any reason there is a weakened area then a raised pressure may pop what would otherwise be ok. There’s also the issue of raised BP pushing fluid out of the circulation and into the tissues, which is not helpful.
Never mind the blood vessels - I wonder what pressure the lungs and heart can sustain?
Edema? If so a friend had this badly prior to his heart attack, his BP was very high towards the 200mm hg.
My point AM was 30 mm hg is a tiny increase unlikely to have any real effect unless something like an aneurysm and even then it would need to be a very weak point such as climbing stairs would be dangerous. Which of course to some it could be.
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Heart obviously would take a high pressure as the pump, leaking valves as we age cannot help things I would think. Lungs, well scuba diving puts a fare pressure on those.
Not so much - yes you are breathing air at higher than normal pressure, but in normal diving situations that is countered by the equal pressure of the surrounding water on your chest. If you were to pop to the surface very rapidly there might be a problem, but not if you dive down and come back up gradually.
(The real danger of ascending too quickly form a scuba dive is “the bends” - where bubbles of nitrogen form in your blood and can cause a lethal embolism).
Well there is always this chap.
Yes - but that’s the air pressure. There’s a particular danger from increased lung blood pressure, which is often rather higher than pulmonary pressure…
Ah alveoli damage, not looked into that, worth an investigation, no, Pulmonary hypertension mean pulmonary artery pressure is greater than 25 mm Hg at rest:
Not much at all and continued hypertention can damage the upper right side of the heart. So the blood pressure is normally way above that. Clever body
I assume a stroke caused by bursting is ALWAYS at a weak point. But I agree 30mm Hg isn’t much of an increase, however I’m sure the problems with high blood pressure aren’t so much stroke as the other effects like oedema, thickening/stiffening of the heart walls and a bunch of other things that don’t spring to mind right now. My mother had ‘heart failure’ due to years of very high blood pressure, with her heart becoming enlarged and stiffened so that she couldn’t pump enough blood when required.
Father likewise, heart failure and aortic aneurysm hence the interest. Poor old heart just trying to do its job and supply the body and all its tiny blood vessels. As we age some of these vessels dont receive the blood so heart tries harder to supply it.
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Have you been offered the screening? Generally at 65 but with a history it might be available more generally
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Yes Jane, I wrote to my GP a few years back and he arranged an ultrasound of my aorta and at my request a cardiac calcium scan. Both were fine. I shall now ask for a cardiac CT angiogram, the non invasive one to check for narrowing and non calcified plaques. My brother seems to have inherited dads issue, he has a dilated aorta which I consider dangerous along with his heart valve leaks and he already has a pacemaker.
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Saw my doctor to renew a prescription and asked if eating half a dozen figs every day could have helped reduce my BP. My BP did reduce unexpectedly over the period I was eating figs, but he didn’t have much to say on the matter! There was nothing else I did that was different during this period except eating figs. I have never eaten so many figs over a period of a few weeks.
When we chew food and swallow it, our digestive system breaks it down and selects all the vitamins, minerals, protein, carbs etc that are available and selectively puts them to good use. And that good use is what keeps us alive and well. Food works! Food is the one thing we can’t do without. I repeat, it’s what keeps us alive.
Doctors have very little training in the benefits of food in matters of health. All they can say is to eat 5 veg portions a day.
From what I gather, controlled studies into the use of food as medicine are not conducted. The USA National Library of Medicine, as of a year ago, says this about figs -
Research in animal and human models of health and disease risk provide preliminary health benefits data on figs and their extracts from fig parts; however, additional well-controlled human studies, particularly using fig fruit, will be required to uncover and verify the potential impact of dietary intake of figs on modern day health issues.
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However your doctor could probanly come up with several pharmaceuticals without even needing to look them up. Such is the world of medcine. They are simply not trained on nutrition. RCT,s wont earn anything for the system. Fortunately there are some good nutritionist out there but keep going on what works I say.
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This thread I find is pretty amazing actually and slightly indicative of “experts” online. There are a number of really authorative websites which do provide a lot of verified information on blood pressure, associated problems, things to do to lower blood pressure etc. British Heart Foundation and American Heart Association are but two - which are geared towards lay people and explain things in simple language.
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Would that be the same American heart association that proclaimed with the invention of statins, that would be the end of atherosclerosis, well that went well didnt it! Been climbing ever since despite more people being prescribed statins than ever and the driving down of cholesterol. Not that said organisation is part funded by the drug companies?
The BHF out of date information on salt and still referring to the eat healthy diet which is mostly carbs and probably caused most of the issues.
Dr Zoe Harcombe had to point out to them that the last republish of the eat healthy guide actually had a can of cola on the front, product placement?
Simonridout is the only expert on here being a retired GP, we are just discussing and I find it quite facinating to hear how figs seem to have lowered blood pressure, Beetroot is another.
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Saw my doctor 3 days ago when he took my BP, with a sphygmomanometer. Afterwards I got my Omron wrist monitor out and took my BP again while he waited. He was delighted, and so was I, because results were almost identical. Well pleased!
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I have - reluctantly - started to take a K (it seems I was paying attention in at least one Chemistry lesson) supplement. We’ll see how it goes.
I love figs (unfortunately they’re not vegan, I understand) so I will shortly be seeking advice re planting a figuier (just guessing there at the word).
Why are they not vegan?
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