High Blood Pressure

At the age of 22 I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Was it something that I saw coming? Nope. All through my earlier years I had been a pretty healthy kid, except for food allergies, that I had pretty much out grown.

How Did it Happen? It was a beautiful day. I was going to school at the time and was also working there after I got done with my classes. Well, this particular day I was leaving early to go and watch my daughter ride her pony at the fair with my mother-in-law. I started to get this really bad headache and felt like I was going to pass out. I went to see my mom after I got done watching Joclyn ride. My mom’s a nurse so I wanted to see what she thought it was. The first thing she did was take my blood pressure and it was 180/120. Needless to say my mom just about had a heart-attack! It was crazy! My whole life my blood pressure had been in the normal range of 120/60.

To the doctor I went immediately! I was currently taking the birth control patch and was told that I had to be taken off of it, because they had a tendency to raise some people’s pressure(in my case the patch had nothing to do with why my pressure spiked). I was also prescribed medication to help to lower my pressure…. After a few months of the doctors playing around with the medications and levels, my pressure seemed to even back out on all the meds. It was an up and down cycle that I really had to pay attention to. I got to the point where I could literally feel my pressure go up and for no reason what so ever.

When I first started taking the medication to lower my pressure I started getting this hugely intense headache. To the point I could not function, my head literally felt like it was going to explode. Just to be on the safe side they ended up doing a CT scan of my head, which came out fine. It was just my body trying to get back to regular levels.

What are some things that may cause high blood pressure:

• Smoking
• Obesity or being overweight
• Diabetes
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Lack of physical activity
• High levels of salt intake
• Insufficient calcium, potassium, and magnesium consumption
• Vitamin D deficiency
• High levels of alcohol consumption
• Stress
• Aging
• Medicines such as birth control pills
• Genetics and a family history of hypertension
• Chronic kidney disease
• Adrenal and thyroid problems or tumors

All the doctors that I had went to asked me a few questions. Are you under any stress?-Nothing more than usual. I wasn’t overweight. They ran all sorts of blood tests and nothing peaked their interest. I didn’t have diabetes.  When they all asked if their was a family history of it and I told them I was adopted, they said well, looks like you just have high blood pressure and will have to deal with it the rest of your life. The one test that no one did, was checking my thyroid levels.

After many doctors and almost 5 years later, we discovered why I was having  high blood pressure…… Hypothyroidism! I was actually kind of happy to find out that I did have it, because it answered so many things. Pretty much all the symptoms of hypothyroidism I had clear back into my teens, so who knows how many years that I had gone untreated.

I hope that you all take the time to listen to your bodies, get regular check ups and watch your numbers.

Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.

Tagged as: health, high blood pressure, hypertension, hypothyroidism