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High Blood Pressure

IUGUY

Active Member
Okay, searched the last three years of the forums and can't find an answer......

I class up for OCS in 6 weeks, for the first time in my life I have been told I have high blood pressure. 145/95. I've never been told that before but have gotten similar numbers for a week now. I'm on no medication and it's not documented anywhere...... How concerned should I be for my flight physical once I get there and/or any other road blocks this may present?
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I would be concerned on a few areas
1) per the medical manual BP that is greater than 140/90 is disqualifying so if you show up and have your BP checked at OCS would they let you actually start OCS? this is my first concern
2) if they say yes to #1 would you be ok being commissioned as something other than an aviation designator? that is my second concern.

relax and think happy thoughts so your BP might go down.
 

IUGUY

Active Member
Oh wow, I have no idea.... I'm active duty right now. So commission is number one priority..... What concerns do i have for aviation?


I feel pretty confident that this is isolated and 6 weeks of diet and excersize will fix this.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Oh wow, I have no idea.... I'm active duty right now. So commission is number one priority..... What concerns do i have for aviation?


I feel pretty confident that this is isolated and 6 weeks of diet and excersize will fix this.

I can tell you that when I stopped eating crap food and went to lean meat and fresh vegetables that my BP went from about 135/80 to about 115/65 so you can make it happen.

I should say I did this on recommendation from a doctor when I asked what I could do to be healthier.
 

IUGUY

Active Member
I'm thinking the same thing. I threw all the crap food I have out and will be eating only lean meat, vegetable and fruits ....... No drinking

How long did it take for that drop to happen ?

I'm trying not to stress to much about it , but I'm stressing about it ......
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking the same thing. I threw all the crap food I have out and will be eating only lean meat, vegetable and fruits ....... No drinking

How long did it take for that drop to happen ?

I'm trying not to stress to much about it , but I'm stressing about it ......

hard for me to say I wasn't getting regular checks but my wife saw a drop in only a month.
 

azguy

Well-Known Member
None
My BP has always run slightly high. For what it's worth, if I skip breakfast/coffee before going in to the Doc, the BP comes in way lower than normal.
 

BusyBee604

St. Francis/Hugh Hefner Combo!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Oh wow, I have no idea.... I'm active duty right now. So commission is number one priority..... What concerns do i have for aviation?


I feel pretty confident that this is isolated and 6 weeks of diet and excersize will fix this.
Brad, was your BP normal when you were PQ'd at MEPS? High BP is a concern for any commission, not just aviation.
Possibilities: Any unusual changes in lifestyle, family or workplace probs/concerns, unusual changes in exercise regimen or diet, unusual exertion, serious disagreements/arguments. Hopefully, just a temporary non-medical situation.:confused:

Try going salt-free diet where possible, and continue to monitor BP. Your getting close to OCS so time is of the essence. Good luck, and let me know how it's working out.:)
BzB
 
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P3 F0

Well-Known Member
None
There was a thread a while back about high BP and ways to lower it. 145/95 sounds to me like something that you can relatively easily get down to the acceptable range. I get antsy just being in a clinic, and I almost always have to spend five minutes just relaxing after my initial reading. That alone has a pretty big effect, not to mention what you can do leading up to it (hydration, no salt, diet, etc).
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Okay, searched the last three years of the forums and can't find an answer......

I class up for OCS in 6 weeks, for the first time in my life I have been told I have high blood pressure. 145/95.
Truly…from a lifetime/career of similar experience, I can tell you that HALF the problem id dietetic…see the posts above. Modify what you can. Don't hurt yourself in the process..

The other half is MENTAL… it's called "White Coat Hypertension"…every time you get the BP cuff Velcroed to your arm by a medical type…you start to sweat the program. I don't have the answer for this. It is what it is.

There are probably relaxation and deep breathing exercises that might help. Again…I dunno. Hope a Doc wades ih here…

My own personal truth: The Navy WANTS guys who "get their muscle up" when the enemy is in the LAR or windscreen…but the Navy really never really bought my hypothetic.
 

IUGUY

Active Member
I had been using the blood pressure monitors at the gym as my point of reference, today i bought a blood pressure monitor and recorded a few times through out the day and even had a corpsman buddy take it manually. The results were alot more consistent. The top number got a little high sneaking into the mid 140's a few times but I even had a few read as low 122/78.... Corpsman took it and it was 125/85 , and when i took a few minutes ago it was 145/80.... Im thinking don't stress, cut the caffeine, booze, and limit salt and stay exercising will do the trick.......... I hope :/
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I had been using the blood pressure monitors at the gym as my point of reference, today i bought a blood pressure monitor and recorded a few times through out the day and even had a corpsman buddy take it manually. The results were alot more consistent. The top number got a little high sneaking into the mid 140's a few times but I even had a few read as low 122/78.... Corpsman took it and it was 125/85 , and when i took a few minutes ago it was 145/80.... Im thinking don't stress, cut the caffeine, booze, and limit salt and stay exercising will do the trick.......... I hope :/

If it is high with the machine ask the HM's to take it manually.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
I had been using the blood pressure monitors at the gym as my point of reference, today i bought a blood pressure monitor and recorded a few times through out the day and even had a corpsman buddy take it manually. The results were alot more consistent. The top number got a little high sneaking into the mid 140's a few times but I even had a few read as low 122/78.... Corpsman took it and it was 125/85 , and when i took a few minutes ago it was 145/80.... Im thinking don't stress, cut the caffeine, booze, and limit salt and stay exercising will do the trick.......... I hope :/
In a more perfect world, Flight Surgeons would take "measurements over time"….
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Stupid shit that I and my shipmates tried:

Prior to Annual FP: 10 days of nothing but boiled white rice and the residual water from same… (this totally sucked…)

No alcohol; no salt for a year: Didn't actually suck, but it was a burden. Worth it in the end. There was also a lot of running involved, before this was a "Navy norm". You had to "want it".

I've come to a point in my life when I now totally dismiss "medicine by numbers". I never really bought into it…but I understood the rules.

A 120 pound Chinese dude and me…a 218 pound white Celtic-American dude…why do our numbers have to be the SAME? Who says "that's normal"? Normal for WHO? Sheesh….

Off my soap box. Good luck. Do what the professionals say you should do. BP can be controlled.
 
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