zuzu8

Bec,

I do understand the denial thing. I myself went into it when I got my very first elevated blood pressure reading at an annual physical. "Who ME? But...but..but....doc, my blood pressure has always been NORMAL!@**!!!"

If 147/97 is the lowest your husband's BP ever gets, and is sustained over time, he's at high risk for cardiovascular disease , stroke etc. down the road.

Looks like genetics are playing a big part in this, given the history of both his parents. I'm not saying he HAS heart disease at this time, but with his family history he may indeed be headed for big-time trouble.

Again, we're talking about risk factors here. So far, we know he has 3: overweight, hypertension and family history. The more risk factors, the worse the future scenario may become.
He can't do anything about his genes but he CAN do something about the blood pressure and weight.

You've probably said this to him already, but ask him if he wants to go through what his folks have? And tell him it's absolutely not too late to head things off at the pass by taking care of this now.

Ask him...if he were a diabetic, would he not take insulin?
If he had glaucoma, would he not take the meds indicated to avoid the possibility of blindness?
If he had asthma, would he refuse to take the drugs to control it?

Tell him hypertension, like the above, is a controllable condition. The beauty of having medication available to us is that it, (along with lifestyle changes) can PREVENT future illness.

I wish I could help more. Do you have any other family members, or even better, children, who could gang upon him?

zuzu xxx