I suppose it’s a medical question, but it isn’t about me. Say you were overweight and had sufficiently high blood pressure to be told by your doctor that you’d be on medication for it for the rest of your life, but you lose the weight and lower your blood pressure that way. (The guy in question lost the weight very quickly, I think.) Does the body just adjust to that as a matter of course, or are there changes or complications associated with essentially tuning the spigots down on your organic garden hoses?
I’ve been at many weights, much like a boxer who moves from class to class. Weight, even up to 50-60#, has never made any difference in my blood pressure. Weight loss is apparently a common doctor recommendation, but they really opt for drugs much more commonly. In my case, cutting out all added sodium reduced pressure from 160/90 to 100/60 in just a few days. I have experienced no side effects from this drastic reduction. I guess there is one major side effect. I’m still living.
Bump? Would it make it more interesting if I’m actually asking about more… personal side effects?
I was starting to get pre-hypertension, and my doctor told me that I needed to lose weight (which I already knew and agreed with). I did lose about forty pounds, and my blood pressure settled right back down into healthy land. However, I think the exercise I did in the course of losing weight had as much or more to do with losing weight in the first place. Aerobic exercise works the heart and makes it stronger, therefore, it doesn’t have to beat as hard to push the blood through the circulatory system.
Because high blood pressure is often considered a “silent killer” - that is, it often doesn’t present with any symptoms - I didn’t experience anything notable before or after I lost the weight that could be attributable to my blood pressure. Well, except, every now and then, I get a little postural hypotension - lightheadedness when I stand.
If you’re asking about male personal side effects, I assume you’re referring to impotence. While it’s certainly possible for high blood pressure to damage the small vessels of the circulatory system - around the kidneys, the heart, and in the penis - that damage is probably not reversible without a comprehensive change in complete lifestyle - diet, exercise, stress management. My understanding is that it is treatable with a small blue pill.
Nobody really knows what causes high blood pressure in some people. Maybe in your case it’s weight. My grandmother, for example, died of a stroke in the 1950’s (in her 50’s) from high blood pressure and she was thin. Several other co-workers, unlike me, have hypertension even without excess weight.
(IANAD) So if it’s just a result of weight, then you will be fine - monitor your blood pressure and talk to your doctor about whether to stop if it gets to be fine, and keep monitoring to be sure you haven’t just delayed the condition. Some people will (should) just keep taking meds for the rest of their life.
I lost weight (60 lbs), aerobic exercised (water kick boxing), lowed my BP (consistently well within normal) and stopped having to take medicine to control blood sugar (metaforin). Still my doctor said I’d be on BP meds the rest of my life because I was diabetic and it helped protect my kidneys from damage. Once diabetic, always diabetic - no cure. Guess the same can be said for high BP. 
I had no side effects whatsoever. I had normal blood pressure as a result of taking an ACE inhibitor and a calcium channel blocker. I lost about 65 pounds over the course of 6 months. About half way through my doctor cut my dosage in half, and my blood pressure was normal at half the dosage my body used to require. Then, when I had lost all 65 pounds, she said to try stopping entirely and BP is still normal.
One thing my doctor warned me about was potential low blood pressure since I was taking medication at the time. I can’t tell from your post if the doctor mere SAID the friend would need medication the rest of their life or if they were actually taking medication already. But in my case, the risk was my body’s “natural” blood pressure might lower to say 120/80, and the medication could then lower it to unhealthy levels. That was why I needed to tell my doctor if I felt dizzy and they were careful to check my BP every few weeks.
In my case, we cut the medication in half and then to nothing without it ever causing any problems with low blood pressure.
I don’t have any medical experience whatsoever beyond my personal experience and that little bit the doctor told me but I definitely had no ill effects whatsoever from lowered blood pressure due to weight loss.
My Doctor recently told me that too. Annoyed the tits off of me. MY blood pressure is fine but they insist I take these drugs. Much like my cholesterol being on the upper end of normal so they put me on statins, I got the cholesterol down and then they said I still had to be on those for life. I wasn’t having that and put my foot down, told them that I didn’t appreciate them throwing drugs at me - especially drugs with known unpleasant side effects - without any sort of thought going in to it.
I no longer take statins.
Been there, done that. I was in bad shape and my doc got all over me about the weight. Once I dropped 20 pound, he was able to adjust my meds down. I’ve now been adjusted downward twice more and one of the meds has been discontinued. I’m looking to get off the durn things completely.
That’s why my endocrinologist has me on a low does of a blood-pressure med. I’m a diabetic (Type II), but have never had an issue with blood pressure – now that I’m a runner, it’s typically around 115/70, but even when I wasn’t running, it was never much above 120/80. However, the BP med can apparently prevent kidney damage due to diabetes (which is also, thankfully, under control), and so, I’m on it, and likely will be for the indeterminate future.
In my case, my blood pressure went up as my weight increased. As I am losing weight now, my blood pressure is going down. At some point my doctor will adjust my blood pressure meds and hopefully I’ll be able to go off of the meds altogether when I get down to my target weight.
I’ve lost 60 lbs or so in a year. I plan on losing another 60 or so. The only side effects so far are that I’m healthier and I need to buy some new pants.
YBPMV.
I developed high blood pressure a few months before scheduled bariatric surgery. The doctor added low dose high blood pressure medicine. After dropping 120 lbs. the doctor removed the medicine. He said I was close to developing type II…but the glucose was back to normal.
As another anecdote, I dropped 40 lbs in a few months, have kept it off for a couple years now, am very active, and my blood pressure is exactly the same as when I was overweight and sedantary: around 135/85. So who knows.
Most people are familiar with the situation: have infection-take antibiotic-infection cured-finish antibiotic. problem solved. So they think: have high blood pressure-take medicine-blood pressure controlled-problem solved-stop blood pressure med.
Blood pressure medication does not cure high blood pressure, it only controls it. You stop the medication, your blood pressure will go back up. Many factors are involved in blood pressure. Being overweight does not automatically mean you will have high blood pressure, and losing weight will not guarantee you won’t need blood pressure medication (but for most people, weight loss helps a lot)
Statins do not cure elevated cholesterol. When you stop the statin, your cholesterol will go back to what it was. Cholesterol levels can be from diet, but your body also makes cholesterol. If your body makes too much cholesterol, diet changes won’t help.
[gets on soapbox] Unfortunately, a lot of doctors don’t look at the big picture. It becomes a “knee-jerk” reaction: elevated cholesterol . . . EEEK! . . . MUST START STATIN IMMEDIATELY.
3 Risk factors for heart disease that you CANNOT change:
- male sex -men more at risk than women (before menopause)
- Family history of heart disease in men before age 55, women before age 65
- age-the older you get the more at risk you are
9 Risk factors for heart disease that you CAN change:
(not in a particular order)
- overweight
- diabetes
- high blood pressure
- cigarette smoking
- elevated cholesterol
- stress
- lack of aerobic exercise
- elevated homocystine- protein in the blood
- inflammation (for whatever reason)-very non-specific marker
The more risk factors you have, the more at risk you are. Not guarantees of heart disease, risk factors. You need to assess the situation and decide how much risk you are willing to take. eg.: only elevated cholesterol- I would not recommend taking a statin. 60 year old Male, diabetic, overweight, high blood pressure, cigarette smoker-is your will up to date?
[gets off soapbox]
When i go to my Doctor and ask some question regarding that,He told me that,Successful weight-loss treatments include setting goals and making lifestyle changes, such as eating fewer calories and being physically active. Medicines and weight-loss surgery also are options for some people if lifestyle changes aren’t enough.Try to lose 5 to 10 percent of your current weight over 6 months. This will lower your risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and other conditions.
The best way to lose weight is slowly. A weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week is do-able, safe, and will help you keep off the weight. It also will give you the time to make new, healthy lifestyle changes.
If you’ve lost 10 percent of your body weight, have kept it off for 6 months, and are still overweight or obese, you may want to consider further weight loss.
I have been 160/100 my entire adult life.
When I developed kidney disease (probably from hypertension), I lost 60 pounds (not by design or intent).
If I stop the meds, I go back to 160/100
As it is, the old drugs are no longer working - I"m trying to double-dose tosee ifit is a dosage issue of I need new drugs.
Kids - if you are chronically hypertensive, get to a doc and listen.
Blood pressure should be taken after a person has been sitting for about ten minutes, before it is considered accurate. In addition, there is the white-coat hypertension of blood pressure being understandably higher while in the doctor’s office. It is normal for blood pressure to be over 120/80 at times, for example, if someone is running to catch a bus or something. Also, it is normal for blood pressure to be higher in the morning. I would take your blood pressure at different times during the day to get a true picture of it. An over-zealous doctor put me on blood pressure medication about ten years ago, and my blood pressure became so low that while getting out of my car I had to hold onto the top of the car, and also having the drug induced low blood pressure caused me to have a very rapid heart rate. There may be other unknown side effects of taking blood pressure medicine.
If you want to lose more weight, you may need to eat fewer calories and increase your activity level. For example, if you eat 1,600 calories a day but don’t lose weight, you may want to cut back to 1,200 calories. It’s also important to make physical activity part of your normal daily routine.And not only for you, but for your entire family.http://thefhfoundation.org/ involves heart-healthy meals, regular exercise to get the blood flowing, controlling your weight and eliminating smoking.