My blood pressure has been about 135/90 for last five plus years. While I am an active person, I have not done anything special targeting to lower my blood pressure. Also, I do have diabetes which I have managed completely through diet and nutrition for last twelve plus years.
Recently, I learnt that many of the complications of old age are due to blood pressure. This got me alarmed so I decided to focus on my blood pressure issues to see if I can get to 120/80 without medications.
I am a big fan of “You Tube University” and learn lots of things from it. I like the intense competition there for experts to share their knowledge. And competition leads to quality. And hence there are lots of good quality channels for health information on YouTube.
The risk on YouTube as well as other social media is that you can easily get drawn into echo-chambers where what you believe is re-enforced by the social media algorithms because these algorithms tend to push the content based on what they know about you. And that means you get more content which is aligned with your beliefs.
One beliefs are major dangers to one’s health. No matter how certain I am of a particular approach, I like to keep 5 to 10% doubt and that helps me continuously refine and sometimes radically change my approach to health and fitness.
It used to be the case the prevalent belief was that the blood pressure increases with Age. But now, medical authorities wants everyone to target 120/80 for their blood pressure. Big Pharma Conspiracy to drag everyone in their Medicine trap? who knows.
The blood pressure medicines are not silver bullets. They have lots of side effects.
It should be possible for most people to achieve 120/80 blood pressure numbers through food and exercise.
I am firm believer in “Data is your friend” especially the “Easy Data” which is made possible by modern technology. I have had old non-wifi blood pressure monitor which has not been used for years now. I always found it somewhat annoying to use.
I was ecstatic when I learnt about Withings BPM Connect blood pressure monitor from Dr Zain on YouTube. It looked simple enough to use and will chronicle blood pressure readings for multiple users in home in an…
