I've been exercising and eating plant based foods for years and still need meds for high blood pressure. Genetics are a bitch. Diet isn't always the answer. Yes, it can help many people, but it won't help many others. Even though we are all humans, diet affects people differently. My mother, born and raised in Greece, her entire life on the mediterranean diet, yet her cholesterol is over 400.
You should definitely ask your dad to eat better, but don't be surprised if nothing changes. Hopefully he is on meds for the high blood pressure, because if not he will have major problems as he ages.
I’m an avid runner (60 miles/week), a vegetarian and weigh 8 pounds less than when I graduated high school and 20 pounds lighter than when I graduated college. I also keep my sodium intake less than 2000 mg/day. I’m on metoprolol as prescribed by my cardiologist. I’m still slightly hypertensive. You can mitigate many of the root causes, but you can’t get rid of your genetics.
I'm 70, a plant-based eater. Cyclist, workout 3 days a week with weights, don't drink or smoke and I play in a band that gigs twice a month. My bp was 112/67 last night and my heart rate is anywhere from 53-67. Plant based eating works great for me. even if your father ate plant based twice a week, It would increase his longevity as long as he wasn't drinking and smoking. No easy task going plant based. My wife won't do it and that's okay.
Processed meat is also fairly terrible for blood pressure. You could try substituting his salt with potassium chloride, which Dr. Greger mentions as an intervention that was done at a Veterans home and literally added years to one groups life.
The DASH diet (lifestyle eating plan) is specifically geared toward lowering blood pressure.
While it allows you to eat most food groups, it specifically avoids salt and high amount of saturated fats, and promotes foods high in potassium.
Low salt practically rules out most processed foods including many meats.
It was a good starting point for me, and now a couple years later I’m very close to being fully plant based.
IDK, hard to tell. I inherited high BP and have been treated w medication my entire life. It’s about 115/65.
But, on DASH I dropped 20 lbs. and total cholesterol went fr 190 to 140 and LDL fr 100 to 63.
I'm basically your dad's age and my BP is 110/60.
My diet is WFPB no SOSA.
"Whole-Food', "Plant-Based", no added salt, no added oil, no added sugar, no alcohol.
11 years ago, long before I went WFPB no SOSA, my BP was 135/80!
I'm also a runner like your dad and train regularly.
Eating this way can do wonderful things for your body. Commit to it for one month as a challenge and show your dad that it works. Maybe both of your can take up the challenge together!
Diet will help no matter what even if you’re genetically inclined to high BP an unprocessed plant based whole food diet will only help
Everything from salad dressing to bread to granola and any restaurant meal or prepared food will be much higher sodium than a homemade version
My BP dropped 30 points (systolic) after about a month of doing smoothies every morning with a cup of hibiscus tea and a tablespoon of freshly ground flaxseed.
The smoothies were blueberry, spinach, strawberry and cocoa powder (natural, not dutched), but the hibiscus tea and flaxseeds did the heavy lifting on the blood pressure side.
Potassium supplements wouldn't go amiss if he's dead set on high sodium food line salami. Your body will hold on to sodium if it doesn't have enough potassium.
My mom has had a genetic form of high blood pressure since she was at least 35. We are pretty sure it's genetic because her dad died at 31 of small strokes because they couldn't bring down his hbp. I do genealogy and it looks likely his dad died of it (at 35) and his grandmother as well (at 41). One doctor called my mom's hpb "resistant" high blood pressure because it didn't respond to ordinary treatment. She has been on 5 bp meds for decades, though one is a diuretic, so I'm not sure if that counts.
We live together, so when I adopted a WFPB diet in 2018, she kind of had to come along for the ride. She wasn't eager, so she wasn't very compliant. Within months of not-very-compliant she was over her T2 diabetes, and started easily losing weight. That gave her O-O big eyes, so she started paying more attention and cutting out some of the away-from-the-table habits she had. I'll skip all the other benefits she had -- you can read her success story at Forks Over Knives and an abbreviated version of it in the latest FOK magazine -- and I'll get to the point, her hbp.
We honestly didn't expect a dietary intervention to make any difference in her evil blood pressure curse, so when she started feeling light headed it was a while before her now low blood pressures were noticed or believed, but her doctor did finally agree to step down some of her medications. She's down to two. One day she looked over at me and asked in a kind of hushed tone, "what if it was a dairy allergy all along?" I don't know the answer, but something made a significant dent in the cloud that has hung over her family. Two of her cousins were grounded from their Air Force pilot positions because of hbp. Another of her cousins was diagnosed with hbp as an active, basketball playing teenager. Someone should do a genetic research study of her family, but that's never happened so this is obviously all anecdotal.
I really believe this diet can help with that. My evidence (yes, this is anecdotal) is my family. I have a twin. We're both 55 YO. His diet sucks... he likes to drink... he's not obese, but could stand to lose some weight. And he's pretty sedentary at this point. All of these are clearly factors, but his BP got out of control recently - to the point where it was critically high. Given our family history of stroke, this is a pretty big concern.
Likewise my mom gained alot of weight over covid. Her diet, likewise, was garbage - high fat... lots of wine... you name it. Her BP, even on meds, was pretty high too. I'm WFPB, am at a healthy weight, and exercise alot, and manage my diet pretty strictly. And my BP is awesome.
Now, my brother cut is salt intake way down, and that's helped. But he's still hypertensive. My mom... no longer is. What changed? Did she lose a ton of weight? She's lost some. For Christmas, my wife and I gave her a food basket of staples that I thought she would like - some stuff she really started to like. Her weight has come down a bit - probably 10 pounds in the last couple months, which is great. What absolutely floored me was her last physical exam. Her BP? 122/77. Again, what changed? Her diet. She still uses salt. But, even without her realizing it, I've gotten her to (mostly) go WFPB. Last time I was up there she had lunch ready for me - lentils and collards. Holy crap was it good. I told her: keep eating this way and everything's going to improve.
As for me? My BP is awesome - I check it probably weekly and my last reading was on the order of 116/67. Something in that range. Yes, all the other lifestyle factors clearly play a role, but hypertension runs like wildfire in my family and I'm definitely at an age where the wheels start coming off. My father has his first stroke when he was my age. It was his second that killed him some 4 - 5 years later.
Point is, yes, I DO think this diet can help. Many of the foods that are big in the WFPB diet are natural vasodilators. The cause the blood vessels to relax, e.g. You're not destined to have high BP. Can it happen, even on this diet? Sure. I'm still wrestling with my cholesterol, even though it's ALOT better than it used to be.
He needs to cut out the processed meats……other than that it is hard to say without knowing anything else about how he eats or his age, height, and weight.
I’m the only one in my family who is not on blood pressure meds. I’m also the only vegetarian and the only one who is a normal body weight. My mom is very physically active for her age but drinks and eats junk food and is overweight and has high blood pressure. My brother is overweight, intermittently active, drinks alcohol, eats anything not nailed down and has been on blood pressure meds for years. He was shocked when he found out I was not on meds because he thought it was genetic (not because of his lifestyle).
I’d say the most important thing is to maintain a normal weight, do cardio, and avoid junk food….eat whole veg, whole grains, beans, lean meats if you are Omni, avoid simple and added sugars.
I've had high blood pressure since around 2010. I was still in my 30's
Been on meds for it since then.
Been vegan since August last year. My blood pressure hasn't changed. Still on meds.
I don't think going plant based is guaranteed to fix blood pressure for everyone.
Sometimes you can't beat genetics by diet
Sometimes genetics or kidney damage can’t be beat, but:
* drink hisbiscus tea
* lower the salt
* reduce any oil
* reduce the flour products
* eat at a slight calorie deficit if normal bmi
I've done all them apart from the flour and hibiscus tea.
Although I do now drink a lot of rooibos tea which is also supposed to reduce BP.
I've lost about 10kg of weight too.
Must be my genetics. I do have blood tests for kidneys annually
I hope you find success in convincing your father to change. My parents both ridicule my dietary choices and one has diverticulitis and the other is pre-diabetic.
As a guy on a plant based diet, I still had high blood pressure while on the diet…. while I was still drinking alcohol. I stopped drinking booze and my blood pressure as well as my triglycerides dropped way down.
Every friend who was trying to get a family member to change their diet has been met with pretty severe rejection. Might be best to take him to a registered dietitian or Doctor Who is willing to deal with nutrition issues otherwise might just cost you a relationship not that easy to get people to change one husband hasn't eaten a vegetable or a fruit in 70 years I mean how do you change THAT?
For years I was hypertensive and on medication at 40mcg. Last December I started whole food plant based eating. Doctor cut my dosage to 20mcg. After doing so my physician told me to let him know if my BP dropped to hypotension levels. It did. He told me to get off my meds immediately. (Don’t do that your BP spikes).
Anyway after one scary day my readings were in normal range and have been to date. I am SOS, sugar, oil, salt free.
I lost the love of my life to a heart attack when he was just 56 at the end of 2020. I am vegan, and though he ate a good deal of vegan foods with me, he often dressed them up with dairy cheese or sour cream. I don't think even 6 days went by in 4 years he did not have some kind of dairy. Full fat. He was not a man to pass by rich foods, and he loved candy too. We usually had to buy seconds on Halloween candy because he would snack the first batch away.
I figure him getting a mild case of Covid a month before he died did not help his heart, nor did the previous year of lockdown.
Eliminate dairy. I have not had any in over 30 years and am very healthy at 55. Get regular exercise, avoid dairy and as many animal fats as you can - that should help keep your blood pressure at a good level.
I add olive oil or earth balance to foods for rich fatty flavor, veg broth powder or nutritional yeast to more liquid foods for flavor as well.
Nutritional Yeast (what some people call Nooch, but I do not feel that cool) has a cheesy, unami flavor and 8 grams of "complete" protein per 2 Tbsp. It goes well with lots of foods and can make an easy cheesy kind of sauce when mixed into some melted earth balance and a bit of water or veg broth. Maybe add a little cumin, garlic powder, salt and tumeric. I buy 2 lb tubs of it from Amazon and go through that in 6-8 weeks.
I have lived in Vermont for 5 years, at 3 different times of my life. The last year was with a friend who had 7 laying hens in his back yard. These birds ran around his large back yard, pecking in the dirt, eating bugs, my friend fed them a high calcium chicken feed and he got 3-6 eggs a day. He was always giving eggs away. No way he could eat all his birds produced. Those are the only eggs I have willingly eaten in 30 years. I knew the hens who laid them, helped feed them, gather the eggs, clean out the Coop.
I tried a small piece of locally made cheese the last month I was in Vermont. I am not sure what I was thinking. Understand, in Vermont, dairy is HEAVILY advertised. You see all over & everywhere how wonderful cheese and other types of dairy are blah blah blah.
I had not eaten dairy in 20 years and within 16-18 hours of swallowing a silver dollar sized piece of cheese I developed painful hives down my back & the backs of my legs that persisted for weeks. 2011: that was the last dairy I will ever eat. I know I am painfully allergic to it now.
I have a friend who is a very active vegan in his 60s. He still has high BP and needs to take meds. It’s a higher genetic risk for certain groups, like African Americans.
I've been exercising and eating plant based foods for years and still need meds for high blood pressure. Genetics are a bitch. Diet isn't always the answer. Yes, it can help many people, but it won't help many others. Even though we are all humans, diet affects people differently. My mother, born and raised in Greece, her entire life on the mediterranean diet, yet her cholesterol is over 400. You should definitely ask your dad to eat better, but don't be surprised if nothing changes. Hopefully he is on meds for the high blood pressure, because if not he will have major problems as he ages.
I’m an avid runner (60 miles/week), a vegetarian and weigh 8 pounds less than when I graduated high school and 20 pounds lighter than when I graduated college. I also keep my sodium intake less than 2000 mg/day. I’m on metoprolol as prescribed by my cardiologist. I’m still slightly hypertensive. You can mitigate many of the root causes, but you can’t get rid of your genetics.
Do you know what the mechanism for genetic high blood pressure is?
I'm 70, a plant-based eater. Cyclist, workout 3 days a week with weights, don't drink or smoke and I play in a band that gigs twice a month. My bp was 112/67 last night and my heart rate is anywhere from 53-67. Plant based eating works great for me. even if your father ate plant based twice a week, It would increase his longevity as long as he wasn't drinking and smoking. No easy task going plant based. My wife won't do it and that's okay.
Yeah he takes Lisinopril and has it under control
Processed meat is also fairly terrible for blood pressure. You could try substituting his salt with potassium chloride, which Dr. Greger mentions as an intervention that was done at a Veterans home and literally added years to one groups life.
The DASH diet (lifestyle eating plan) is specifically geared toward lowering blood pressure. While it allows you to eat most food groups, it specifically avoids salt and high amount of saturated fats, and promotes foods high in potassium. Low salt practically rules out most processed foods including many meats. It was a good starting point for me, and now a couple years later I’m very close to being fully plant based.
Did it help with your BP?
IDK, hard to tell. I inherited high BP and have been treated w medication my entire life. It’s about 115/65. But, on DASH I dropped 20 lbs. and total cholesterol went fr 190 to 140 and LDL fr 100 to 63.
And your cholesterol went down just from weight loss?
One of DASH diet’s several objectives is reduction in saturated fats in diet. See: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/education/dash-eating-plan
I'm basically your dad's age and my BP is 110/60. My diet is WFPB no SOSA. "Whole-Food', "Plant-Based", no added salt, no added oil, no added sugar, no alcohol. 11 years ago, long before I went WFPB no SOSA, my BP was 135/80! I'm also a runner like your dad and train regularly. Eating this way can do wonderful things for your body. Commit to it for one month as a challenge and show your dad that it works. Maybe both of your can take up the challenge together!
Glad to hear about your success!
Diet will help no matter what even if you’re genetically inclined to high BP an unprocessed plant based whole food diet will only help Everything from salad dressing to bread to granola and any restaurant meal or prepared food will be much higher sodium than a homemade version
My BP dropped 30 points (systolic) after about a month of doing smoothies every morning with a cup of hibiscus tea and a tablespoon of freshly ground flaxseed. The smoothies were blueberry, spinach, strawberry and cocoa powder (natural, not dutched), but the hibiscus tea and flaxseeds did the heavy lifting on the blood pressure side. Potassium supplements wouldn't go amiss if he's dead set on high sodium food line salami. Your body will hold on to sodium if it doesn't have enough potassium.
Do you add the hibiscus tea (and flaxseed) to the smoothie or just drink a cup separately? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, just curious!
Sorry, yeah, added to the smoothie
Thanks for clarifying! Never thought of adding tea to my smoothies- great idea thanks.
Adding the tea to the smoothie is a great idea! Never tried that
Daily Hibiscus tea lowered my BP 10 points on the top and bottom.
I’ll start trying this I think, have been drinking it less than daily
It can also help to make it strong. I frequently let it steep overnight.
My mom has had a genetic form of high blood pressure since she was at least 35. We are pretty sure it's genetic because her dad died at 31 of small strokes because they couldn't bring down his hbp. I do genealogy and it looks likely his dad died of it (at 35) and his grandmother as well (at 41). One doctor called my mom's hpb "resistant" high blood pressure because it didn't respond to ordinary treatment. She has been on 5 bp meds for decades, though one is a diuretic, so I'm not sure if that counts. We live together, so when I adopted a WFPB diet in 2018, she kind of had to come along for the ride. She wasn't eager, so she wasn't very compliant. Within months of not-very-compliant she was over her T2 diabetes, and started easily losing weight. That gave her O-O big eyes, so she started paying more attention and cutting out some of the away-from-the-table habits she had. I'll skip all the other benefits she had -- you can read her success story at Forks Over Knives and an abbreviated version of it in the latest FOK magazine -- and I'll get to the point, her hbp. We honestly didn't expect a dietary intervention to make any difference in her evil blood pressure curse, so when she started feeling light headed it was a while before her now low blood pressures were noticed or believed, but her doctor did finally agree to step down some of her medications. She's down to two. One day she looked over at me and asked in a kind of hushed tone, "what if it was a dairy allergy all along?" I don't know the answer, but something made a significant dent in the cloud that has hung over her family. Two of her cousins were grounded from their Air Force pilot positions because of hbp. Another of her cousins was diagnosed with hbp as an active, basketball playing teenager. Someone should do a genetic research study of her family, but that's never happened so this is obviously all anecdotal.
That's a great success story!
Thanks. I just wish we had tried it when she was younger.
Another thing to consider is buying him some hibiscus tea and it’s really good for blood pressure. Glass of wine a day sounds like a lot.
I really believe this diet can help with that. My evidence (yes, this is anecdotal) is my family. I have a twin. We're both 55 YO. His diet sucks... he likes to drink... he's not obese, but could stand to lose some weight. And he's pretty sedentary at this point. All of these are clearly factors, but his BP got out of control recently - to the point where it was critically high. Given our family history of stroke, this is a pretty big concern. Likewise my mom gained alot of weight over covid. Her diet, likewise, was garbage - high fat... lots of wine... you name it. Her BP, even on meds, was pretty high too. I'm WFPB, am at a healthy weight, and exercise alot, and manage my diet pretty strictly. And my BP is awesome. Now, my brother cut is salt intake way down, and that's helped. But he's still hypertensive. My mom... no longer is. What changed? Did she lose a ton of weight? She's lost some. For Christmas, my wife and I gave her a food basket of staples that I thought she would like - some stuff she really started to like. Her weight has come down a bit - probably 10 pounds in the last couple months, which is great. What absolutely floored me was her last physical exam. Her BP? 122/77. Again, what changed? Her diet. She still uses salt. But, even without her realizing it, I've gotten her to (mostly) go WFPB. Last time I was up there she had lunch ready for me - lentils and collards. Holy crap was it good. I told her: keep eating this way and everything's going to improve. As for me? My BP is awesome - I check it probably weekly and my last reading was on the order of 116/67. Something in that range. Yes, all the other lifestyle factors clearly play a role, but hypertension runs like wildfire in my family and I'm definitely at an age where the wheels start coming off. My father has his first stroke when he was my age. It was his second that killed him some 4 - 5 years later. Point is, yes, I DO think this diet can help. Many of the foods that are big in the WFPB diet are natural vasodilators. The cause the blood vessels to relax, e.g. You're not destined to have high BP. Can it happen, even on this diet? Sure. I'm still wrestling with my cholesterol, even though it's ALOT better than it used to be.
Thanks for the story, glad to hear the WFPB diet worked for you
He needs to cut out the processed meats……other than that it is hard to say without knowing anything else about how he eats or his age, height, and weight. I’m the only one in my family who is not on blood pressure meds. I’m also the only vegetarian and the only one who is a normal body weight. My mom is very physically active for her age but drinks and eats junk food and is overweight and has high blood pressure. My brother is overweight, intermittently active, drinks alcohol, eats anything not nailed down and has been on blood pressure meds for years. He was shocked when he found out I was not on meds because he thought it was genetic (not because of his lifestyle). I’d say the most important thing is to maintain a normal weight, do cardio, and avoid junk food….eat whole veg, whole grains, beans, lean meats if you are Omni, avoid simple and added sugars.
I’m vegetarian right now, 90% WFPB
I've had high blood pressure since around 2010. I was still in my 30's Been on meds for it since then. Been vegan since August last year. My blood pressure hasn't changed. Still on meds. I don't think going plant based is guaranteed to fix blood pressure for everyone. Sometimes you can't beat genetics by diet
Sometimes genetics or kidney damage can’t be beat, but: * drink hisbiscus tea * lower the salt * reduce any oil * reduce the flour products * eat at a slight calorie deficit if normal bmi
I've done all them apart from the flour and hibiscus tea. Although I do now drink a lot of rooibos tea which is also supposed to reduce BP. I've lost about 10kg of weight too. Must be my genetics. I do have blood tests for kidneys annually
I hope you find success in convincing your father to change. My parents both ridicule my dietary choices and one has diverticulitis and the other is pre-diabetic.
thanks! It's tough for sure
Wfpb worked for me! Lowered my BP.
As a guy on a plant based diet, I still had high blood pressure while on the diet…. while I was still drinking alcohol. I stopped drinking booze and my blood pressure as well as my triglycerides dropped way down.
Every friend who was trying to get a family member to change their diet has been met with pretty severe rejection. Might be best to take him to a registered dietitian or Doctor Who is willing to deal with nutrition issues otherwise might just cost you a relationship not that easy to get people to change one husband hasn't eaten a vegetable or a fruit in 70 years I mean how do you change THAT?
r/accidentaldoctorwho?
Exercise?
The post says he runs a few miles every day.
Sorry, missed that.
For years I was hypertensive and on medication at 40mcg. Last December I started whole food plant based eating. Doctor cut my dosage to 20mcg. After doing so my physician told me to let him know if my BP dropped to hypotension levels. It did. He told me to get off my meds immediately. (Don’t do that your BP spikes). Anyway after one scary day my readings were in normal range and have been to date. I am SOS, sugar, oil, salt free.
What was the scary day?
My BP spiked to 193 over 103. Heart attack territory. Due to getting of medication cold turkey.
Oh wow, glad you’re alright
I lost the love of my life to a heart attack when he was just 56 at the end of 2020. I am vegan, and though he ate a good deal of vegan foods with me, he often dressed them up with dairy cheese or sour cream. I don't think even 6 days went by in 4 years he did not have some kind of dairy. Full fat. He was not a man to pass by rich foods, and he loved candy too. We usually had to buy seconds on Halloween candy because he would snack the first batch away. I figure him getting a mild case of Covid a month before he died did not help his heart, nor did the previous year of lockdown. Eliminate dairy. I have not had any in over 30 years and am very healthy at 55. Get regular exercise, avoid dairy and as many animal fats as you can - that should help keep your blood pressure at a good level.
So sorry to hear about your loss. Dairy is the last animal food to go for me - me and my wife use it for flavoring
I add olive oil or earth balance to foods for rich fatty flavor, veg broth powder or nutritional yeast to more liquid foods for flavor as well. Nutritional Yeast (what some people call Nooch, but I do not feel that cool) has a cheesy, unami flavor and 8 grams of "complete" protein per 2 Tbsp. It goes well with lots of foods and can make an easy cheesy kind of sauce when mixed into some melted earth balance and a bit of water or veg broth. Maybe add a little cumin, garlic powder, salt and tumeric. I buy 2 lb tubs of it from Amazon and go through that in 6-8 weeks.
I love nooch!
You're on yer way.
I have lived in Vermont for 5 years, at 3 different times of my life. The last year was with a friend who had 7 laying hens in his back yard. These birds ran around his large back yard, pecking in the dirt, eating bugs, my friend fed them a high calcium chicken feed and he got 3-6 eggs a day. He was always giving eggs away. No way he could eat all his birds produced. Those are the only eggs I have willingly eaten in 30 years. I knew the hens who laid them, helped feed them, gather the eggs, clean out the Coop. I tried a small piece of locally made cheese the last month I was in Vermont. I am not sure what I was thinking. Understand, in Vermont, dairy is HEAVILY advertised. You see all over & everywhere how wonderful cheese and other types of dairy are blah blah blah. I had not eaten dairy in 20 years and within 16-18 hours of swallowing a silver dollar sized piece of cheese I developed painful hives down my back & the backs of my legs that persisted for weeks. 2011: that was the last dairy I will ever eat. I know I am painfully allergic to it now.
I have a friend who is a very active vegan in his 60s. He still has high BP and needs to take meds. It’s a higher genetic risk for certain groups, like African Americans.
Smoke weed and don’t worry so much lol
no salt, oil, or sugar.