Someone tried to talk to me regarding her worries about her high blood pressure and the effect of it should she decided to try for another baby. Somehow I made light of her predicament, asking her to start exercising instead. It was very, very wrong of me to do that. And I am so sorry. Didn’t know what was wrong with me that morning, seeing that my office server was down and I had nothing better to so I should be able to talk her through her worries in a more helpfull way. But I did not and I regretted that.
Anyway, to make up for it, I decided to blog about high BP, of what little I know about it. If any medical expert reads this, feel free to correct me.
As a general rule, anything 140/90 is considered high. It meant the force against your artery wall when the blood is pumping is higher than normal. A very high blood pressure during pregnancy will limit the oxygen supply to fetus so there’s the risk of poor fetal growth there . Apart from that, there will be a risk of premature separation of placenta from uterine wall. In other word, low birth weight , premature birth or God forbid, stillbirth. And there is also pre-eclampsia to deal with, which could be fatal for both mother and baby. However, I have no doubt that this situation could be fixed with medication and proper medical attention. The only bad thing is that you may end up having to attend more pregnancy check up. Just remember to consult doctor and gynae first before conceiving that little one
Exercise? Well, it is good in a way that it will make your heart stronger. When the heart is stronger, it can pump blood with less effort. So less pressure on the poor arteries. On a moderate case, exercise alone is enough to keep the BP in control. Good for someone who is very indiciplined when it comes to taking medication everyday. But, just because I say so, please don’t just hop on to a treadmill and run for 5km daily. Check with any good doctor first and get the green light. Then start it easy. Increase the pace gradually. In two or three months, it will help put some stabilizing effect on the blood pressure. By all means, stop and run to the doctor if there is any chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath or your heart skip a beat (but not due to your kids jumping down the staircase, ok). And no, I do not recommend yoga. What I meant by exercise is your regular cardio workout like jogging, swimming, walking, cycling or ermm belly dancing pun boleh kot.
Food? Perhaps go easy on salt and start increasing calcium/magnesium intake. I remembered my mom, whom also has high BP, initially prepared 2 sets of meals. One is low salt/low fat menu for herself and a normal one for the rest of us. But over the years, we all ate the same low salt/low fat food, which I still practice till now. Just excuse my occasional eating binge under the disguise of company entertainment.
One last thing is, to get a different doctor to check your BP, under different circumstances. (read : without feeling like murdering the boss, the hubby, the kids then blowing up the rest of earth). It may give different reading now that you're feeling less murderous.
Ref: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov
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