Very High Blood Pressure And Blood Glucose Results

BTC

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I’m not sure if this is the appropriate sub-forum, but it stems from my blood pressure and blood sugar readings, so I’ll try here.

So I’m coming here seeking some advice, but I don’t have a lot of information to provide just yet. Perhaps one of the things I’d like some advice on is what other information do I need to start a plan? And then, of course, some pointers on a plan.

I was tested last night at the ER, which revealed that I have very high blood pressure (about 200/135) and very high blood sugar (about 550). The ER doctor prescribed Metformin and suggests that my primary care physician (once I get one) will put me on statins.

I went in because I had been told a few days before that I couldn’t get a root canal because the dentist didn’t want to give me anesthesia with such high bp (confirmed in the ER). I had also been noticing a propensity to overheat and sweat profusely as of late – I walk a mile to work each way and when I reached my office or home, I’d start sweating a lot, even though I didn’t feel tired or strained at all, and I've been doing that walk for years; this overheating/oversweating also seemed to be happening more frequently and with even less exertion the past week or so as well; and I have been getting tension headaches (though they don’t hurt, they are disconcerting) more frequently. So I checked myself into the ER yesterday.

EKG, chest xray, CT scan, various other blood tests, all came back fine. BP and BS, not so much.

After pumping me with 2 L of saline and not eating anything, my blood sugar went down to about 250, and my blood pressure went down to about 167/130. Still bad, but not as bad I suppose. Their theory is that the blood sugar and blood pressure are linked, such that the blood sugar increases the viscosity of my blood, making it harder for my heart to pump it through.

Some background on me:

49 y/o male of Iranian descent (living in US).

Overweight most of my life. Currently 5’9” and about 215 lbs. I lost about 30 lbs last year and have kept about 25 lbs of it off. (I didn’t go on a strict diet or anything, but I went through a period of about 10 months where I moved in with and was primary caretaker for a family member dying of cancer, and that normalized my bad eating habits a lot, and lots of home-cooked food from friends was available too.)

History of gout.

History of high bp (though not as high as this).

Recently developed mild GERD.

I walk a lot and am moderately active. No real exercise regimen though for past couple of years. I used to do pretty intense weightlifting for a couple of years (Body by Science, with a trainer), and while I received some benefit from this, I started getting gout attacks almost every other session, so I stopped about 2 years ago.

Since then, I started taking care to get better sleep, eating somewhat better, and I felt like a lot of my health was improving – gout was about 1/10 as bad as before, snoring was significantly improved, energy was a little better. But obviously some things are still very wrong because of the BP and BS issues.

Haven’t been to a doctor in maybe a decade.

I don’t have too much of a history of strict diets. I did paleo for about six months about 8 years ago – I lost some weight, but ended up getting really severe gout attacks for months that basically ended that. I later tried a keto diet (basically VLC paleo) for a short bit, but that triggered a bad gout attack as well, so I stayed away. Since then, for awhile, it was eat whatever I want –mostly outside food, lots of foods of various ethnicities, and various sweets. Over time I improved the diet somewhat (adopting some things from Peat), so I started eating more fruits and juices, avoiding PuFA to a greater extent, more dairy, more gelatinous meats, collagen, shellfish, etc. The problem was that for years I’d eat right until the end of the day, and then I’d come home, smoke pot, and then gorge indiscriminately. I definitely have not been in any type of extended caloric deficit, I haven’t been avoiding any macronutrient, and while I may a fair amount of good food now, I eat a lot of bad food too.

I had a history of smoking cigarettes – quit three years ago. Nothing since.

I had a bad cocaine habit for a few years – that ended about 8 years ago (along with use of most other drugs). No drugs but pot since then though.

I've never taken prescription drugs long-term. I did take a lot of NSAIDs for gout attacks as needed, but past couple of years not much has been needed.

I'm not on any supplements (though I understand the various ones recommended on here, and I have tried a few, but never stuck with any, though some did seem to be of benefit).

I have a very high-stress job and lifestyle (lifestyle-wise, much of the stress is self-inflicted, dealing with problems I’ve created, but at the end of the day, stress is stress). I've managed to make my job much less stressful than it was over the past 5 years, but it's still not great.

I have developed some anxiety issues in middle age. I’ve also had really potent avoidance issues, as well as depression issues, most of my adult life, not that I’ve ever gotten them examined or treated. (Perhaps ironically, I had a very happy childhood with a great family and lots of friends and lots of love. I sometimes feel like this was all wasted on me.)

Basically: what would you do? I have this general dread of getting on chronic meds, not really fixing the true underlying issues, getting side effects, and just degrading over time. I’m in a bad place now and am trying to figure out a path forward fixing my health without causing serious damage due to the BP and BS issues.

(And for reference, simply out of intellectual curiosity, I have explored and understand to a fair degree Dr. Peat's teachings and the various aspects of it discussed on this board, but I obviously was not disciplined enough to implement them; that being said, I don't really need to be convinced of the core principles - i.e., I'm not going to be confused to the extent any advice I'm given is inconsistent with conventional wisdom.)

Thank you so much.
 

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