Blood Pressure Blues
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 effortless kind of way. So I immediately ordered it about two weeks ago and have been reasonably satisfied user of it so far.
Dr Zain explains how to use it correctly in his YouTube short video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3k3kTm0R-xc
Withing BPM Connect Pros
- Easy to use
- Portable : At .8 pounds or 362 grams it is pretty light. Its dimensions are 2.36 x 2.16 x 6.1 inches, so it is small form factor also.
- Long lasting rechargeable battery : It claims up to six months battery life, but that is with like once a week use. Daily use probably mean charging once a month.
- Has both bluetooth and wifi connectivity to mobile.
Cons
- Uses micro usb port rather than USB-C.
- Multi user is hard to figure out. User has to wait after the reading is done and then all the user show on the bpm connect like stock ticker tape. You have to press the button for two seconds to toggle through the users.
- If the mobile app is not on and close by, you can lose the readings.
- Does not allow re-assigning of readings if someone by mistake assign it to different user. In this case, reading has to be deleted and assigned to correct user.
How I plan to use it?
I take blood pressure readings every morning and evening.
In the morning, I take BP reading about 15 to 30 minutes after waking up. I do not consume anything except plain water before the reading.
In the evening, I do a small walk around sunset and take the reading immediately after that.
The best thing about a digital wifi BP monitor like Withings is that it helps you setup a feedback loop. You can observe the effect of various food and exercise choices you made that day.
Food Interventions
There are food options which reduce your BP. Following study found that having two spoonful of ground flax seeds over six months has been observed to reduce both Systolic (-10 mm Hg) and Diastolic numbers (-7 mm Hg). I am adding two big spoonfuls of ground flax seeds to my oatmeal breakfast every day.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/hypertensionaha.114.03179
Food rich in nitrites, such as beets, spinach and other greens are also helpful in reducing blood pressure by dilating the blood vessels. For this reason, I am back to drinking daily fruits and vegetables smoothie that last year drastically dropped my cholesterol numbers but somehow got dropped from my daily routine.
I also add cocoa powder to the smoothie as it is better than consuming dark chocolates as typically dark chocolates have additional sugar and fat in it. Cocoa powder has flavonoids that helps with blood pressure.
Garlic is also very good for blood pressure. I have started using garlic stuffed olives as snacks to help with BP.
Pumpkin seeds also help in BP management. I have started adding them to my fruits and vegetables smoothie.
High fiber foods such as Beans also help so I try to max out on them.
Drinking plenty of water( around 64 to 96 oz per day) helps to reduce sodium in blood supply by pee-ing it out.
Reducing sodium consumption and increasing potassium consumption is a good approach to manage BP. Many grocery stores including Walmart have inexpensive salt substitutes which have 50% less salt than regular salt as it replaces that with Potassium Chloride. We can hardly tell any difference in the saltiness of the substitute and it works for most dishes. You can experiment and find out how much it works for you.
Link for Withings BPM Connect : https://amzn.to/3bzV1F0
Medical Disclaimer
All information in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment from a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
