Robert D. Lesslie - 60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure: What You Need to Know to Save Your Life

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc.

This book is not intended to take the place of sound professional medical advice. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any liability for possible adverse consequences as a result of the information contained herein.

Unless otherwise noted, the stories in this book are fictitious accounts, used for illustration purposes only. Although based on the authors experiences, they are not meant to refer to any person, living or dead.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

60 WAYS TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

Copyright 2015 Robert D. Lesslie, MD

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lesslie, Robert D., 1951-

60 ways to lower your blood pressure / Robert D. Lesslie, MD.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-6327-5 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6328-2 (eBook)

1. Blood pressurePopular works. 2. Blood pressureTreatmentPopular works. I. Title. II. Title: Sixty ways to lower your blood pressure.

RC685.H8L46 2015

616.1'32dc23

2015021384

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Contents

If you live long enough, somethins gonna get ya.

Small comfort, but nonetheless true.

Were living longer now, years longer than our forefathers and mothers of just a few generations ago. Thats a real blessing. But with that blessing comes some difficult challenges. Even if our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures (Psalm 90:10), most of us will experience health problems that werent common a couple of centuries back. Various cancers, dementias, kidney diseases, arthritis, strokes, heart diseaseit takes time to develop these things, and until fairly recently, we werent getting old enough to experience them very often. But now we are, and we need to pay attention to how we live and to the things we do and dont do.

The way I look at it, each of us needs to give our self the best chance of enjoying good health for as long as we can. A lot of things remain out of our control: our genes, unforeseen accidents, and bad luck. But many factors affecting our health are within our control, and we need to pay attention to them.

You know the list. Proper diet, exercise, not smoking, getting a good nights sleep, knowing your blood sugar, cholesterol, and lipid numbers and keeping them in line, alcohol only in moderation, if at all. And, of course, theres the silent killerhigh blood pressure. Thats what were going to tackle in this book. Before we go any further, do you know your blood pressure numbers? Do you know whats normal and desirable, and why its important? Are you aware of the bad stuff that happens when your BP is sky high? Were going to explore those issues and many more. And were going to stress accepting responsibility for and taking control of your health, including your blood pressure.

Theres a lot of good news here. We can make sure that our pressure is normal and that we keep this silent killer at bay. It will require some effort, but you can get it done. Nows the time to take the important steps in assuring you give yourself the best chance to live as long and as well as you can.

Of course, our health and well-being is not wrapped up in our blood pressure, or any other measure for that matter. We are physical creatures to be sure, but we are also emotional and spiritual beings. Its all connected and tied together. Well look at how that works and why balance is so important.

To get things started, its time to meet Dave Jernigan. If you read 60 Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol , youve already met him and his wife, Lisa. Hes typical of many of my patientsmaybe even you. He had to deal with his abnormal lipid levels, and he got that done. Now it seems his blood pressure is creeping up, something new to wrestle with.

Sound familiar? Lets find out.

Okay, Doc, give me the bad news.

The forty-six-year-old sat on the edge of the exam table, his hands tucked under his dangling legs. He was alone this time.

Its not all bad news, Dave. I tossed his chart on the countertop, pulled over the rolling stool, and sat down. Your cholesterol is still in good shape, and youve lost a couple of pounds since you were last here. Its your blood pressure now that we have to work on.

Thats what I figured, he said. Always something. As soon as you get one thing fixed, another pops up. Anyway, how bad is it?

I appreciated his frustration with some of the challenges of getting older. Yet he hadnt had anything really bad happen to him, and he was in good health. It was my job to help him stay that way.

The silent killer, dont you guys call it? He managed a wry smile. Slips up on you before you know it and then wham!

Yeah, this is serious business, Dave. Your blood pressure is 152 over 98. That puts you in the hypertensive category, but its not dangerous. Not yet.

What do you mean not yet? Whats the worst that can happen? And when do I need to start worrying?

You dont want that kind of pressure hammering away at your brain and heart and kidneys, so we need to do something about it. But its not at the point where something catastrophic is going to happen.

Not today anyway. Right? Dave leaned forward, his eyes unblinking. Can we handle this with medication? A pill or something?

When we had talked about his cholesterol and how to get it under control, he didnt like the idea of being on prescription medication every day, maybe for the rest of his life. He had wanted to try changing his diet and increasing his exercise to see if that would work. When it hadnt, he reluctantly started taking one of the statin drugs, and his lipids quickly improved. Now he wanted to jump straight to a pill.

Dave, youre upset about this. Tell me about it.

He sighed and looked at the floor. I have an unclehad an uncle. Bradley was my fathers brother. He lived out in Seattle and we used to go visit when I was growing up. He had this fishing boat, and we would go out on Lake Washington and spend hours, just the two of us, fishing and talking. I remember Aunt Sue would always get on him and remind him to take his medicine. He had high blood pressure and was on a couple of different pills. Uncle Bradley had been a three-letter athlete in high school and was always active, always in good health. Or at least I thought so. He didnt like having to take his medicine every day and most days he didnt. Aunt Sue would remind him, and hed just wink at me and shake his head.