My coworker's mother had a blood pressure spike last weekend

[Ex Lurker]

She spent seven hours in the ER, then they sent her home even though her BP was still 190. They didn't have enough beds to admit her, or rather, they had plenty of beds but not enough staff.

[cilla4progress]

1. Wierd...I was just going to post about high BP

‐ my recent experience in controlling it.

Are you hearing updates that we "may" be past the pandemic...? Hopefully that helps your friend's mom.

Going to look for a health forum to post my BP experience.

[Ex Lurker]

4. The numbers are going down in my state (Louisiana)

so I think we're past the peak. Of course hospitalizations lag a few weeks behind that. The bigger issue is the shortage of nurses and other health professionals. Even if sickness levels return somewhat to normal, those people aren't coming back any time soon, so the issue will be with us for a while even after the (hopefully last) wave passes.

[Aristus]

2. That systolic is pretty high, but discharge was likely predicated on what her diastolic pressure was

If it was below 120, and she was on appropriate medication, that was likely enough to convince the medical provider to discharge her.

Of course, they should really focus on turning away unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, and admit only those who are capable of following medical protocols.

But I guess not...

[Maraya1969]

3. 190/120 is OK?

[Aristus]

5. Not in the least.

But if there's no room in the hospital, the only choice is to make sure she's on appropriate medication, and have her follow up with her primary care provider as soon as possible. With effective treatment, her blood pressure could drop to much safer levels within twenty-four hours.

[cilla4progress]

6. Interested in your thoughts

on my other post - what I'm finding to control my BP.

Anecdotal with decent sources.

Don't want to dispenseedical advice since I'm in no way qualified!

[Aristus]

7. I'll look for it.

n/t

[Tree Lady]

8. I had a time my blood pressure kept going up really high even with meds

It was the last straw for changing diet. I quit sugar and flour back in September and blood pressure been normal ever since.

I found out that blood pressure is caused by inflammation like a bunch of other stuff and sugar causes it. Flour products too like bread and pasta because they turn to sugar in your body.

I had tried over the years to cut down but so addicted to desserts I had to go completely off. Joined a sugar detox program and group with zoom support meetings. Getting off sugar is sooo hard because we use it as comfort, reward, good days, bad days, etc

[localroger]

9. It's truly addictive. Cold turkey works best.

I found that once I forced myself to eat only low-carb for a few weeks I no longer had to force myself. It is eating that kind of food that triggers our craving for it. In nature, living as hunter-gathers, we would rarely have had access to it and on those rare occasions binging would have been sensible (it's cheap storable energy, and things like ripe fruit don't stick around in the environment). But it wouldn't make sense to have cravings during the large majority of the time when it wasn't available.

[Tree Lady]

10. If you read books even from 120 years ago

sugar wasn't added to foods and only desserts usually used fruit which the fiber in the fruit does something to lessen the bad affects of fructose. Sugar was expensive and hard to get in the old days so hardly used.