High Blood Pressure??!!
I need help with a potential diagnosis of high blood pressure.
This weekend was the EN camp in WI with 106 mile bike and 1 hour run on Friday followed by 65 mile bike ride on Sat. Sunday was a 30 minute swim and attempted run.
When I got out of the swim, I felt really crappy and had some asthmatic coughing with chest tightness, I chalked this up to feeling really tired and having average of 5 hours a sleep a night over the past week, maybe due to over training. I attempted to run but just couldn't get it together. I did not have my inhaler with me as I rarely use it.
Went to the doctor today and had multiple BP reading of 165/100 and it has stayed consistent through out the day (I check at home). Pulse ox was 99%, lungs clear, all other vitals normal. I have run slightly high BP in the past, closer to 140/90 on sporadic occasions.
For now I am to just periodically check my pressures, decrease salt intake,( when training I use a custom infinite blend of about 600 mg per hour during heavy training). With IMWI ~4 weeks out, I really am not sure how to balance the salt/training/pressure.
Does anyone have any thought on what could be happening?
Comments
Salt restriction is not smart. Imo. The latest studies, to my knowledge, have decreased the importance of salt restriction as treatment for hypertension. My wife has htn and is on medication. She is a salty sweater. Anyhow, i don't know that salf restriction is useful for any endurance athlete regardless of bp status. Probably harmful actually.
Those are sone pretty high bps, Non-benign causes of high bp have been ruled out? You and you doc might want to make a decision within 1-2 weeks about medication. You would need time to afjust to it. Make sure the doc has athlete knowledge as certain bp meds are inappropriate for athletes.
Mary.
So get some basic blood testing done. At some point consider studies like renal artery imaging and echocardiogram. If continues pretty high you should consider starting a medication before the race. Some sports docs have good info on bp treatment in the athlete. Let us know how things develop over time.
robin