lovevixen555

The bloodpresure increase does not have me worried that much at all. Your rest blood pressure though is starting to get darn close to the Hypertension. It is the fact that your pulse went up so much while playing. Playing the trumpet is not an intense anerobic activity. If your pulse jumped that much just walking across your liveing room to get the remote I would be just as concerned pluse a resting pulse of 75 is not that hot to start with this indicates a very very in active lifestyle. The worse shape you are in the more quickly your pulse rise's with just the slightest activity. For instance a seriously competitive runner might have to run 1/4-1 miles to even have his pulse rise much from his resting state and would not be out of breath after running a 1/4-1 miles really hard. On the other hand you stood up and played one sustained note and had your pulse jump imediately. It would be interesting to see how long it took to return to normal.

I am not saying you are going to drop dead of heart disease right this second what I am saying is that your body is presenting symptoms that heart disease is standing around the corner waiting for you to catch up to it! I would bet that if you went to the Hospitals Cardiac rehab facility and had them put you trough some non invasive testing which basicly consist's of steping up and down on a low step until your pulse is at it peak for age and then stoped and counted with a stop watch to see how long it takes for your body to recover you would fail this test like 99% of the Western World population.

My resting pulse is 62 beat's a minute and after carring in groceries an entire pick-up load worth for my family of 5 my pulse was only 72 beats a minute and my blood pressure was around your starting point. Now I will say that I do take high blood pressure medicine since becomeing fat I have had to take the blood pressure medicine but it does not affect my pulse. I take Enalaprill which block's some enzyme that my body makes too much of since getting fat. I am working on the fat part it is a slow process. Trust me I am not pointing a finger at anyone and not pointing one at myself. I know I have enough work on me I need to do but unlike most musicians I was at one point an incredable athletic specimen and I am fully aware of my decline and my current short comeings. In my case it was a drastic and sudden decline but for most people it is a slow slow process that starts when you are some where between 18 and 25 and by the time you are aware of how bad things have gotten you have serious health issues.

Their is one gentleman on this board that was unfortunate enough to suffer I think two strokes or two heart attack's and as luck as he is to be alive and I am sure he is happy to be alive he can not play his trumpet anymore! I am not trying to be an agent of fear and doom rather a loan voice crying out from the wilderness. As easy as it is to make little changes until you arive at th e place you want to be it is stupid to not take care of the body you have since you only get one. For me my cross is weight loss but for some it is simply a matter of getting some exercise each day! Their is even a breathing device that teach's you to breath to reduce blood pressure. It is the only non-drug method endorsed by the USA and Canadain centers or research groups for hypertension. If I read it write it has borrowed some form of breathing from YOGA and it works in 9 of 10 patients allowing them to come off medicine alltogether and those that still need medicine need far less. I think it is called Exhalation or something like that. My ppoint is even modern medicine is finding that breathing paterns and moderate movement like yoga or indian club's swinging can have huge impacts in ones cardiac health with out being intense and uncomfortable!

Harald

Just a word of caution: The original poster took one single resting blood pressure and one during a sustained high note. For diagnosis of hypertension, blood pressure should be monitored daily for at least 1 or 2 weeks. If the trend is confirmed, then one should start doing something. Also, there are patients that are so nervous when they just see a blood pressure cuff (I may have hypertension!) that their blood pressure is high just during the measurment or when they see a physician or nurse approaching them with the blood pressure cuff. They call this "white coat hypertension".

And as ROWUK mentioned already, the most potent "non-pharmacologic" treatment is to reduce body weight. It has to do with a hormone called leptin.

Regards,

Harald