Members dan88z Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Spicy food doesn't bug me either. I eat food that a lot of people can't touch on a daily basis. Fried food is what bugs me the most. Isn't prilosec one of those remedies that you have to take and keep taking, like, it doesn't work right away? I think my sister had to take it and that's how they prescribed it, not a take as needed type of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Severalist Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Positive thinking has little effect when you can't breathe. Very true, very true. For me, fear is, and for the most part always has been, a big part of my life. I find if I can get past the fear of the thing then even bad pain isn't so bad. I said the positive thinking thing in half self deprecating jest but I do think something to that effect can be just as important for the individual as medicinal care at times (this from a guy who hasn't been to a doctor in years and who usually spends his time pondering morbid thoughts.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marzzz Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Glad that you were ruled out, Mike! Spicy food has nada to do with acid reflux- just follow your directions for GERD and make sure you have a yearly checkup now that you are in your late 40's, and have a family history. Mediterranean: please STFU, you have no idea what you are talking about. Before the pharmaceutical companies invented selective H2 blockers for GERD, it was treated by highly invasive surgery and many more people either underwent partial gastric resection, selective vagotomy, or died from a bleeding gastric or duodenal ulcer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miket156 Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Mike: Do you check your blood pressure routinely? Even at age 46, you should check it! :poke: Mike T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Real MC Posted March 3, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 At least once a year I have a visit to the doctor and as part of routine they check my BP. It's been healthy and normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miket156 Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Mike, I don't know if your family has any history of high blood pressure, which includes any uncles, aunts, cousins, anybody. My family does. I did pretty much the same thing as you did, have the family doctor check it once a year. When I was 35, my doctor discovered that I had high blood pressure, just like that. It had been "normal" on previous trips. Anyway, even if you don't have a history (which makes your chances better of not having any problem) I would suggest checking it more than once a year. Any drugstore, or pharmacy in a department store like Giant Market, Walmart, any of them, have blood pressure equipment somewhere close to their checkout. You can sit down, put your arm into the machine, press a button, and the machine does the rest. i check mine at least once a week. Quick and easy and worth doing. Mike T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Real MC Posted March 4, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hmm, they have a BP machine in the breakroom at work. No history of high BP in my family but not a bad idea to check it regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hmm, they have a BP machine in the breakroom at work. No history of high BP in my family but not a bad idea to check it regularly. I'd deduct 10-20% if I checked my BP at work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 Guys I had a heart attack two+ years ago November 4. Always take chest and upper abdomen pain really seriously as in seek medical treatment immediately. I thought I had food poisoning with a pain right near my solar plexus, nausea, and vomiting (I had stomach pain from food poisoning once about 24 years ago in college). It was when I turned around and sat down on the toilet seat and I broke out in a drenching sweat all over my body including hands and fingers that I realized something was really, really wrong. I'm glad it was just gas - you don't want the real thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marzzz Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 I'd deduct 10-20% if I checked my BP at work! Yeah, those automatic machines are generally not well calibrated. You can actually get a decent BP cuff and a stethoscope pretty inexpensively and learn how to do it yourself, accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mecedes Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 If you have panic attacks see your doctor without delay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miket156 Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 Quote: "Yeah, those automatic machines are generally not well calibrated. You can actually get a decent BP cuff and a stethoscope pretty inexpensively and learn how to do it yourself, accurately." I don't know, I checked my blood pressure on one of those machines about an hour after I had come from my doctor's office, and it was within about 5% of what my doctor got. Keep in mind that your BP varies depending on what you are doing. My doctor has me sit at least 5 minutes or more (usually a lot more) from the time I come into his office until the time he checks it. He also checks both arms, he usually gets a different reading on each arm. Basically BP is NOT an absolute number. I have a BP cuff and a stethoscope and find it cumbersome to check it myself. I prefer the machines. But the point is to check it regularly. Mike T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 Yeah, those automatic machines are generally not well calibrated. You can actually get a decent BP cuff and a stethoscope pretty inexpensively and learn how to do it yourself, accurately. Take multiple readings over time and calibrate against readings taken by your doctor and/or nurse. That is what my GP does with me. If your BP is high then the BP monitor can be used to track your progress at reducing it. There will be "noise" in your readings, too. Sources of noise are normal variations in your body during the day (after resting, eating, exercising, having sex, etc), variation the machine performance (should be pretty small) and variation in your measurement technique (how you apply the cuff, how you sit while doing the measurement, etc). People who do real intense designed experiment work will use different people to perform their measurements to get an estimate of the variability of their results versus the operator. We hear stories of various process lines where the "biggest lever" controlling process yield was which operator was on duty. I have found that there is a consistent difference between the blood pressure value as taken by my doctor's nurse and as taken by my doctor (lower with my doctor) and it is not due to the fact that the nurse is attractive (she is neither especially attractive nor repulsive LoL). We (me + doctor) think the variation arises from a combination of a difference in measurement technique and also that I will physically relax after talking with my doctor for five minutes or so; I am always anxious about going but relax after having been there for a while. When I was in cardiac rehab classes, which was a combination of monitored exercise and lectures, they would take our BP after exercise but only after sitting and resting in a chair for about 5 minutes or so; they monitored our heart rate through wireless EKG machines during the class and only took our BP after our heart rate had gone back to resting rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 If you have panic attacks see your doctor without delay Yes, panic attacks can be treated quite successfully. I take Paxil for panic attacks and it changed my life. I would say the two biggest medical intervention things I have done on purpose to help my quality of life are to get treatment for panic attacks (been on Paxil for about 6 years now) and to get treatment for sleep apnea (CPAP machine). Getting a vasectomy was also pretty enhancing - no more worries about unplanned kids - I have three already! Exercise and weight control are also important but I am not counting those as medical interventions - more like maintenance things like taking a shower and brushing my teeth. Some guys are worried about sex drive issues with Paxil. I should add that in the right doses Paxil does not hinder your sex drive much (it does hinder for some people). In fact my doctor says it is used to treat people who have premature ejaculation issues. I fathered two our of three children on it and even got my wife pregnant a third time while she was on the pill (she miscarried later). So I visited the urologist to make sure that wouldn't happen again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miket156 Posted March 4, 2009 Members Share Posted March 4, 2009 One other thing. You can easily get an idea of what your average blood pressure reading is by monitoring it over a period of time. I've heard some people say that their BP is "normal". The "average" BP reading is 120 over 80. However, that might not be what's "normal" for YOU. When I was growing up and into my mid thirties, my average BP ready was 140 over 60. My family doctor at that time said I had "Blood pressure like a bull". Meaning that my pressure was high when my heart was pumping (140) and low when my heart was at rest between beats (60). One time when I went to his office for a routine check up, my BP was 160 over 90. Trouble. He immediately put me on BP medication and monitored it once a week after the BP medication had a chance to work. He had to change my medication more than once in order to get the right combination of medication that was working for me. I've been on BP medication ever since, I'm now 61 years old. Yesterday I checked my BP and it was 122 over 66. Not too shabby. Mike T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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