Are there people out there who have been living with constant and persistent hypertension despite medication?

Are you overweight?

Not me. The person in question is and no matter how much dieting, endless walking and doing the right things, he still can’t get rid of either or the hypertension! Really infuriating!!!!!!!!

If he looks into weight loss surgery, it’s a fix for both obesity and for things like hypertension, diabetes, etc. The majority of people who have WLS will either totally discontinue or greatly reduce the amount of medication that they take for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.

I used to work with a guy who was very obese and had a zillion health issues, one of them being hypertension. About a week after his WLS, he almost fainted from his blood pressure being too low. The doctor told him to discontinue his medication totally.

This is not something that happened to just one lucky person. If you google it, you will find out that it’s true for the majority of WLS patients.

@ZEPHYRA Do you know if he’s tried different medications or different combinations of meds? Sometimes it takes 5 or 6 tries to find the combination that works well with the fewest side effects.

Yes, he has tried just about everything there is for hypertension. I DO know that his mother suffered from it from the age of 30 something until now (aged 83). I don’t know if it is a question of genetics.

@ZEPHYRA It can be genetic. Everybody in my family is on some form of meds for it, except my mother. (We tell her it’s genetic or she just drives us crazy) And we all take different meds.

@Adirondackwannabe: Except that you are not obese, and the person in question is.

I’d like to hear the numbers. If your diastolic is 80 they’re trying to pass that off as hypertension now to rack up med sales . It’s a travesty and Big Pharma is laughing all the way to the bank. I mean, 90 is borderline. People need to know that blood pressure goes up and down all throughout the day and often skyrockets when around a doctor (white coat syndrome).
My best friend had her meds doubled then tripled. Have no idea what she’s doing about it now (oh, that’s right. She’s on statins) but her mother died from a heart attack in her fifties. So she kept tap dancing and got a bone spur on top of her foot and is now on crutches post surgery plus has a cast on her leg.

@Aster makes a good point. What are the numbers, @ZEPHYRA?

Always up in the 18s and 19s and if ( big IF ) it ever hits 16 which doesnt happen much, we celebrate!

What? 120/75 is the new desirable number. To be followed in less than ten years to 115/70.

@ZEPHYRA: What does 18’s and 19’s mean? I know numbers like @Aster quotes – the top number is usually in the 100–200 range (desirable toward low end of 100 range) and bottom number usually in the high tens, (desirable around 80). What is 18’s and 19’s?

180, 190…....

180 to 190 would be the top number. There’s a bottom number, too. What is that?

180 is definitely high.

@jca sorry for not being clear about it. Bottom number usually 90–100!

@ZEPHYRA: He sounds like a candidate for weight loss surgery. You’d be surprised how many people say “I don’t want surgery. I will do it on my own” and they never do it on their own, or they lose 20 lbs and then regain it right back. Meanwhile, health issues such as hypertension take their toll on their organs.

@jca you ARE right. This person has really been trying to do everything right yet things aren’t working out. Of course like so many he is totally against weight loss surgery. Incidentally all the weight is belly fat, not on arms and legs. Funny how most of us want to fight it on our own without medical interference!

The husband of a good friend of mine was always very obese. He was very stubborn and refused to eat vegetables and healthy foods. He would push them to the side of his plate. I don’t know how she could stand that stubborn attitude when it came to his health but he’s her husband, not mine. He was also always against weight loss surgery. He smoked and drank, too. She and I use to talk about how it was inevitable he was going to get a major health issue like diabetes or high cholesterol or hypertension. Now he has cancer and surgery is necessary but due to his obesity, he has issues that may kill him when he’s being operated on. In addition, if he needed personal help as far as help getting out of bed or going to the bathroom, she would not able to help him as he would be impossible for one person to lift. He would need to go to a nursing home for rehab.

Now it’s clear to him and to all of us how his obesity and his stubborn nature is impacting him in so many ways.