blood pressure and the DOT physical

Wine? Are you serious? I know some is good for you but you can't drink anything when you are getting ready to go in for a physical much less getting ready to go on the job. Instant alcohol test fail. No pun intended but I guess you don't know much about a DOT physical.

 

take 2 asprin 15 minutes before you go

 

And a couple of fish oil capsules. And don't drink anything either, liquid goes right into your veins and arteries and will increase pressure slightly. It's just like water in a garden hose, the more water in the hose the higher the pressure.

 

Might work for you. But if I have been without nicotine and caffeine for a day, my blood pressure will be the least of ANYBODY's worries. . .

It is true that you can "hype yourself up" over a physical. Most of the folks who give these are familiar with the situation. I've even had them take my BP, go on with the physical, then toward the end, come back and check the BP again. I've seen a significant drop when this has happened.

 

While you are in the waiting room do some deep breathing exercises. slowly breathe in deeply through your nose, hold it for 2 seconds then breathe out through your mouth. close your eyes and think about every breathe. Low blood pressure runs in my family so out of curiosity I tried this last week when I got my renewal, my blood pressure was 107/77

 

hell, i just had my 2 year phy done last week, and she took my bp. first time it was 155/88... waited 5 mins and took it again, and it was down to 144/77... told me that i can they can only take my bp 2 times, and has it put down the second # if they take it 2 times on on the form,
i dont have high bp. i never ever had an issue with bp ever....
i told her she was really cute... she blushed!... and i was already

 

If you not hydrated, your B/P WILL RAISE, so do not skip drinking fluids! Man, some of the info would be funny if it wasn't for the seriousness of this thread. The red wine comment is not meant to be drunk right before the physical, IF you drink red wine ( a glass 2 to 3 times a week, it CAN help to lower your B/P, along WITH physical exersize, changing your eating habits, sleeping habits, AND following your Drs. suggestions! Cant't believe how many pilots, truckers, train engineers come into office saying what they have been doing to lower B/P, and then get upset when it doesn't work. They did everything, EXCEPT what they should of done sometimes!

 

If you have too much fluids, your blood pressure will be elevated. It is why people have to take water pills such as lasix and others.

 

Sometimes when reading tips for reducing blood pressure, drinking water is recommended. However, authority websites including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Mayo Clinic do not mention drinking water to lower blood pressure, when discussing treatments and lifestyle changes.
Why should some articles say that drinking water lowers blood pressure?
The idea that drinking water will lower blood pressure seems to come from the idea that when lots of water is consumed, that sodium will be flushed out of the body and consequently pressure will drop.
After all, several classes of diuretics are very effective at reducing pressure. These diuretics function by increasing the loss of sodium from the body and an increased volume of urine. Both the loss of sodium from the blood and decreasing the blood volume result in decreased blood pressure.
So, if drugs, that effectively lower blood pressure in most people, work by increasing the volume of urine and the amount of sodium in the urine, then drinking more water should do the same thing?
Unfortunately, there is a problem with this reasoning. To understand why, it is necessary to understand that the body very tightly controls the levels of fluid and ions such as sodium and calcium. For optimal functioning, the body has evolved a wide range of control processes that are involved in keeping many ions and fluid levels within a narrow range.
Diuretics act on parts of the system that control sodium. For instance thiazide diuretics bind to, and inhibit, a protein called the Na/Cl symporter (Na=sodium, Cl=chloride) that controls the amount of sodium that is reabsorbed back into the blood from the urine that is being formed. The result is that the body recovers less sodium from the urine as it is being formed, and so more sodium is lost in the urine and there is a slight increase in volume. So diuretics affect the regulatory system and change a part of this.
Water has no impact on the sodium or fluid control system so it will not change the total amount of sodium in the urine, or change the blood volume. Drinking more water will increase the volume of urine as the body regulates fluid levels, to keep the blood volume stable. Additionally, the same amount of sodium (and other ions etc.) in a bigger volume will lead to the urine being more dilute.
Think about the color of urine. If not much fluid has been consumed, or there has been a lot of sweating, there will a small quantity of urine with a strong yellow color (from urobilin). If a person is well hydrated, there is more urine with a pale color. Same thing with sodium. In a healthy individual, the greater the volume of urine due to increased fluid consumption, the lower the concentration of sodium.
So the bottom line is that, generally, increasing the amount of water that is consumed will not increase the amount of sodium lost by the blood, so blood pressure will not be lowered.
In fact, drinking water can actually cause a very short term increase in blood pressure in some people, particularly those with some types of very low blood pressure. This is only temporary and has no long term impact on blood pressure.
Keeping hydrated is good for health, but overhydration has no benefit for lowering blood pressure.

Judith Airey PhD. is a biomedical researcher with a range of interests including all things cardiovascular. She has several health-related websites including a blood pressure information site http://www.infobloodpressure.com/ and a blog http://www.lifeagingand.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles

 

Sometimes it really seems like one "X-purt" will come out in favor of something, and immediately a whole bunch of other "X-purts" will jump up and say the first "X-purt" is wrong. The study is flawed. There is not a broad enough selection of subjects. BLAH BLAH BLAH

Then a few years down the road, they will ALL reverse themselves.

Personally, I still waiting for them to come back with "TOBACCO IS GOOD FOR YOU!"