Thanks, this is great insight. I will apply this technique the next time I take my numbers!
And thank you for the kind words… I truly FEEL the healing happening, slowly, but it’s happening. I didnt get morbidly obese in 7 months… it took a few years, so I have to be patient and determined to reverse the damage I’ve done.
I know! I have always wanted an authentic Aztec one. But I have also read that they were buried with this whistle and it was used in their journey to the afterlife… can’t remember the details.
HCTZ bumps it down a little (diuretic), Lasix get’s it down more (stronger Diuretic), and Telmistarten brings high to normal after some time (ARB) and none of those make you feel like crap.
There’s some others that are definitely terrible though. Forget what my mother was taking but it was destroying here, gave her a fistful of HCTZ and Telmistarten to keep it up and she was good to go, then had her doc just give her that. Some of them like some weird ones. Some of them work really quick, but those are the ones that always make you feel like crap too.
Plus is, when a diuretic is all it takes to drop you down which I find is all most people actually need, then you know it’s a diet/exercise thing, which is good because it’s something easily tweaked. I had to get good at prescribing myself stuff since having a high BP diag on the books could do a lot of damage to me at work… not worth the hassle! Undoctored was a great book LOL!
Congratulations on your weight loss. I have high BP and have been high for years. I am not overweight and haven’t been for a number of years but have been in the past spent many years yoyo dieting.
My doctor diagnosed a bit of White coat hypertension as my BP went up whenever I had anyone else take it. Mind you I do still have high BP. I have been on BP tabs for about 7 years . Have you been prescribed tabs?
I have cut out extra salt and when I feel I need some then I add bacon to my meat (carnivore) .
One thing I found out recently is that if you’re on BP tabs then they should be taken at night as they work better at bringing the BP down. I wasn’t told that when I was prescribed them but I had a stroke in October and the stroke consultant said I was to stop taking them in the morning and take them at night. I asked why I hadn’t been told that when I was prescribed them all those years ago and he said because Doctors think you will forget to take them at night so they don’t tell you. Even the Pharmacist at my Doctors Surgery told me exact same thing! I was shocked as I would have taken them at night if I had been told to do so! Of course I take them every night now and I monitor my BP daily and keep a track of it and my BP is in a good range most days. Funnily enough it spikes every time I go into work! Hahah.
I wouldn’t think your Keto diet has anything to do with it.
Good luck reaching your target weight and don’t take it too hard that your doctor didn’t pat you on the back . Some don’t have the bedside manner we expect, you know how well you have done and I guess your family and friends too and now we do and you will no doubt have lots of support on here.
I’ve read through everyone’s responses to your post and didn’t see any mention of this, so I’ll add it. 
Do you eat many high potassium foods? I found that I need potassium supplements when I don’t eat vegetables high in potassium. I use Lite Salt on my food to help with potassium. Just a thought based on my own experience, but everyone is different.
Potassium helps to lower blood pressure by relaxing the walls of your blood vessels. Just a thought. I have found that if I consume high salt, but am not getting potassium my BP goes up.
…”when a diuretic is all it takes to drop you down which I find is all most people actually need, then you know it’s a diet/exercise thing, which is good because it’s something easily tweaked.
@lfod14, I have not heard it put in such simplistic terms before and was startled. Can you explain this better for me? I don’t have BP issues, but loved ones do.
The stroke registrarspoke to me about possibly going on a slow release diuretic so 8 am monitoring my BP for a couple of weeks for the lovely pharmacist at my medical centre. He wants to make sure that I really need something more than my BP tab. He wants to know that when my BP spikes that it comes down quickly else changing or adding meds may reduce it too much and can give me issues I don’t need.
Just saying so that your loved ones should get it monitored before adding diuretics on their own volition.
While talking electrolytes and blood pressure, I’ll add this to the mix from the NIH…
And here’s an n=1 anecdote for you:
When my wife went keto she began supplementing with daily magnesium (500mg) to address both keto-constipation and electrolyte-hydration needs. Shortly thereafter, our family internist discontinued her long-standing blood pressure Rx - and her blood pressure has been naturally low (110/70) ever since without medication, continuing with daily magnesium.
Many peoples high BP is just do to water retention, for many it comes back to salt, which is why the whole low salt / high blood pressure thing happened. Most people prescribed “blood pressure meds” are actually just on diuretics. It’s usually the first attempt to lower it before being put on ARB’s, ACE Inhibitors, Calcium or Beta blockers. ARBs just relax the blood vessels and let stuff flow easier, pretty much mimic what Nitric Oxide does. When simply dumping excess water does the trick, you know it can also be fixed with diet and exercise since that increases NO and helps dump water. That and also drinking more water. Most people don’t nearly drink enough and drinking more makes the body hold onto less as backwards as that sounds. Bumping myself up to 1.5g/day stopped me from getting lines on my legs from my socks at the end of the day.
For some even upping Potassium does it since our Sodium/Potassium balance helps control what we hold onto. A natural way that works really well for some, but not at all for others is Dandelion Root, 1500mg before each meal can dump a lot of water. It’s what a lot fighters do to make weight since they’re tested for diuretics as part of their drug screen.
Whenever talking about salt and blood pressure, I rarely miss a chance to recommend Dr Nicolantonio’s heavily footnoted “The Salt Fix” - so here I go again. 
Another reliable way to boost nitric oxide (NO) in the bloodstream, thereby relaxing one’s blood vessels, is to take sildenafil. Of course it has certain other side effects of which one should be aware 
Thanks… I’m passing this on. The part about how your socks made indents on your legs is SO much like my husband. I know telling him to try drinking more water will get a laugh. But he’s open to reading and learning and trying.
Through homeostasis, the body is very picky about maintaining bloodstream salinity within a fairly narrow range. Much of our organ functions depend on being kept in this band.
All else equal, drinking more water serves to dilute this salinity (makes intuitive sense). And lower salinity means either (a) you can tolerate higher dietary salt better (as it restores salinity back into the zone) and/or (b) you will excrete more water (urine) to accomplish the same outcome. Within a fairly large tolerance, drinking more water will not cause edema - it will help flush your body and you will urinate excess H2O along with various other metabolic waste products you’d rather get rid of anyhow.
Wow so many amazing responses and great information! Thank you every one!
Good call on the potassium, I do take a supplement and I do get a lot from food, but going through my logs, I’m taking in far more sodium than potassium, I’ll try upping the numbers there and see what happens.
I also supplement magnesium but a very low amount, I’ll increase this to at least 500mg as well to see what happens.
I’m getting lower readings from home, but also similar readings to the doctor’s office (this am at least). The low readings are still considered high though.
I follow Dr. Nicolantonio on IG and have been experimenting with salt before working out and it’s been fantastic so far, I kinda don’t want to stop.
And I’ve always been a savoury guy, I love sodium but I believe I’ll be more mindful after this discussion.
I’m still ~30 lbs away from my goal weight and my body has changed dramatically in the last 4 years.
My point is, I want to try and fix my BP naturally before going on the meds, if that makes any sense.
Yes it does/can! I take 5mg/day (great for pumps at the gym). Up to around 20mg day you’re pretty safe. Start taking more than 30-40… make sure your aware of what’s on your mind… 50mg is the starting ED dose 
Thanks for much for sharing this. For the past couple of years I was trying to figure out how my blood pressure could possibly be getting worse when I was losing fat and increasing muscle. But your explanation makes so much sense. This study confirms it:
Both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly greater when the standard cuff was used. For every 5 cm increase in arm circumference, starting at 35 cm, a 2-5 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure, and a 1-3 mmHg increase in diastolic blood pressure was observed.
My arms range from 40.5 -42 cm which puts me in the category to use a bigger cuff. The range in the article is what I’m seeing, an increase from just under 119/77 to 128.78. Hmm… maybe I can finally get off these meds. Of course I’ll talk to my doctor first.
Thanks!
So if I converted it right my arms are right at 47cm so close enough I can assure you yours would drop huge, even at 128/78 that’s only a little bit high, I’m surprised they actually have you on BP meds for that, unless it’s diuretics. If so those are fine to stay on, and have some benefits.
When I started the meds my BP was a lot higher so it’s at 128/78 while medicated. Without I’m in the 130s. No diuretic, I’m on a med that’s a mix of a angiotensin receptor blocker/calcium channel blocker.
Congrats on the arm size, that’s large in my book