low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
what does it mean exactly when a person has low heart rate and severe hypertension? i have a minor in biology and a major in biopsych and i have never heard of this combination before.
my dad's rating is 190/90, and will soon be put on meds if his condition does not improve, however, most meds, and in fact, most natural remedies for blood pressure will reduce heart rate as well as blood pressure. i am not into the idea of using medication either (i don't believe in changing your body functioning if you can lose weight or do natural remedies to fix problems), so the almost-certainty that he will be on some bothers me. He is now on a diet (he is 5'11 and weighs 230lbs, so he could stand to lose about 50lbs), is fairly active and does not deal with alot of stress.
but i am hesitent to recommend natural remedies that will conflict with his heart rate. any suggestions?
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
Quote:
Originally Posted by jozi209
what does it mean exactly when a person has low heart rate and severe hypertension? i have a minor in biology and a major in biopsych and i have never heard of this combination before.
How low are we talking? What is his resting heart rate?
Quote:
my dad's rating is 190/90, and will soon be put on meds if his condition does not improve, however, most meds, and in fact, most natural remedies for blood pressure will reduce heart rate as well as blood pressure. i am not into the idea of using medication either (i don't believe in changing your body functioning if you can lose weight or do natural remedies to fix problems), so the almost-certainty that he will be on some bothers me. He is now on a diet (he is 5'11 and weighs 230lbs, so he could stand to lose about 50lbs), is fairly active and does not deal with alot of stress.
but i am hesitent to recommend natural remedies that will conflict with his heart rate. any suggestions?
Most meds do NOT reduce heart rate. There are 2 classes of meds that can reduce heart rate. The first is the beta-blockers. This class should be avoided unless someone has a fast heart rate that needs to be controlled. The other drugs that can lower heart rate are two of the subclasses of Calcium Channel Blockers (CCB). These are the non-dihydropryrines - specifically diltiazem and verapamil. All other common classes (diuretics, ACEs & ARBs, and dihydropryrine CCBs) do not change heart rate. In fact, some of these (specifically the dihydropryrine CCBs) can cause a slight increase in heart rate.
In any case, I recommend home monitoring of his BP for starters. 190/90 is indeed high. The systolic is particularly high. If your dad is over 60, this could be due to arterial hardening. If he is younger, it's most likely due to anxiety. Again, home monitor of his BP will tell you where he really stands.
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
I tend to agree with jozi that most, if not ALL, drugs that lower blood pressure decrease heart rate. I have found that my ARB (Cozaar) drops my heart rate AT LEAST 10 BPM and even hydrochlorothiazide gives me an appreciable rate lowering.
Of course, NOTHING lowers the rate like a potent beta-blocker and on one of the stonger of these (nadolol) I've gotten occasional heart rates in the 45-50 BPM range.
Basically, I see resting numbers in the 60's with cozaar-HCTZ medication and 70's without. On hard exercuse, there is no way I can get to 130BPM with the meds, it's not too hard to get over 140 unmedicated.
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
thanks for replying lenin and palamedes...
he is 55 years old. i guess maybe his arteries are hardening because i doubt he has very much stress in his life (he is the type of person to bottle everything up though) my mom stuck him on a strict diet, so we will see how that goes. his heart rate is 2% below normal, whatever that is. his doctor said it is okay unless it goes lower, then he will need a pacemaker. i think he needs to go back to the doctor soon to do a follow up.
thanks again
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
What about a person collapsing from low heart rate. My Mom just had that happen. Her thyroid was OK, but the CT showed a long ago mini-stroke. She just fell out onto the floor. What does this have the potential of meaning? Is she close to another stroke? A Heartattack? A little info please from somebody legit please.
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please
rtucker - What do you mean by somebody legit? This is a patient to patient support board. You are unlikely to find people with medical training here and should any stop by, they are not allowed to identify themselves as such. (It would be easy on an anonymous board of this type for someone to falsely identify themselves as such, anyway.)
Re: low heart rate and high blood pressure-help please 
