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My name is Richard Gumsley and I created this website and wrote Six Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure which is available on the Amazon Kindle Store.
I have high blood pressure, or I should say I had high blood pressure but I have managed to lower it through diet and lifestyle changes. My blood pressure was 159/97 and it is currently 120/78 and still dropping slowly.
My story is not quite as simple as that as it took a long time for me to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, fifteen years to be exact! My problem is I get anxious when I go to the doctors and anxiety raises blood pressure. The first doctor who noticed my blood pressure was high dismissed it as what is known as ‘white coat hypertension’.
Note: White coat hypertension is caused when people get anxious when they visit the doctors and this can give the false impression of high blood pressure.
The doctor explained that as I was young, fit and healthy, it was likely my anxiety was causing the high blood pressure readings and that I should not worry about it. The reason it then took fifteen years to be diagnosed with high blood pressure is that every time I had my blood pressure measured after that I explained the previous diagnosis from the original doctor and the high reading was just dismissed.
Two years back I saw a new doctor who after taking my blood pressure decided to do further investigation. One of the things he did was get me to wear a 24 hour automatic blood pressure monitor which would record my reading randomly during a 24 hour period. He explained this would either confirm the white coat hypertension theory, or show I did in fact have high blood pressure. It showed the latter!
At this point I was pretty annoyed and upset, the doctor pointed out that I had likely had high blood pressure from the start. I was annoyed that the original diagnosis was not backed up with further investigation and I was annoyed that every doctor I had seen since had trusted my belief that I had white coat hypertension without investigating and this put my health at risk.
When I was diagnosed with high blood pressure the doctor suggested that as I was still young (34) I should try to lose a bit of weight, eat healthily and be more active and try and lower my blood pressure that way. This was the beginning of my quest to take charge of my situation and try to lower my blood pressure naturally without medication.
I have since spent the last three years reading books and studies, researching online, talking to experts and experimenting in an effort to understand high blood pressure and to see if it can be lowered, cured and prevented through diet and lifestyle changes. I learnt a lot about myself and high blood pressure in general so I decided to create this website and write Six Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure (available on the Amazon Kindle Store) to share the information/research I have gathered in the hope it will be helpful and interesting to others with high blood pressure.
I lowered my blood pressure naturally without drugs and I (plus a growing number of high profile doctors and health professionals such as Dr Joel Fuhrman) believe everyone can lower their blood pressure, if not cure their high blood pressure naturally via diet and lifestyle changes.
Many people have preventable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol which are mainly due to eating bad food, being overweight, drinking too much alcohol and living a sedentary life with no activity or exercise. These conditions can all take years if not decades of your life expectancy yet we all have the power to eat better, drink less, be more active and lose a bit of weight.
I believe it is our responsibility to look after our health in the first instance rather than burdening our health systems with our largely preventable lifestyle illnesses. However if we still get ill, our doctors should be in charge of our treatment, but even then our health is our responsibility not theirs. Arm yourself with knowledge of your condition, ask your doctor questions, request tests, question treatments and if in doubt ask for a second opinion.
Take care of yourself to the best of your ability and if you are under a doctor’s care, make sure he/she looks after you to the best of their ability.
I hope my website encourages people with high blood pressure (or other conditions) to not ignore their condition. I hope it might spark a curiosity in finding out more and lead to them being proactive with their care, whether this is being more active or eating more healthily, or just visiting their doctor to discuss and understand their treatment and diagnosis.