Alcohol and blood pressure First day
 

I'm 39 and suffer high blood pressure from drinking 160/110. I have an 8 year old girl and am looking for support. When I stop drinking about a week my blood pressure will be close to normal. But then I drink again and it comes right back up as well as the anxiety. I want to see my child grow up and am afraid I am killing my self. I can't wrap my mind around taking bp pills to continue this habit of heavy alcohol use. So I'm going to try and quit day by day.

Welcome!

I moved your thread to the Newcomers Forum where more members will see it.

I'm glad you have decided to take care of your health and to stop drinking. You will always find support here.

Alcohol raises blood pressure and heart rate so you will see and feel the benefits abstaining from alcohol

My fitbit recorded my resting heart rate at 88bpm on day 1 sober.
I'm on day 19 today and I'm at 63bpm. So minus 25bpm! There's no way that isn't good for my heart
Good luck in your sober journey, I've found its difficult to begin with but I'm definitely more relaxed and my complexion- I'm not as red and flustered looking all the time.

Thanks zombie I cant stand the red face. Gives me anxiety when I see it. Usually goes away in a few days to a week. Problem is for the last 6 years almost every family photo I see it.
Did you ever check your BP or mostly just HR

Welcome to SR Clemsondoc. I had high BP and heart rate when I was drinking too, and also have been diagnosed with Anxiety since I quit - but I'm certain my drinking was making that worse too.

Anxiety itself can raise your BP and heart rate, so constantly checking it can actually elevate it too.

The good news is that you can absolutely make a huge change if you quit drinking. If your goal is to quit and stay quit you've come to the right place! Hope you can stick around and read/learn/share with us.

I get my BP checked every so often. Last time I had been sober for about a week and it was fine whereas before I was in the 150/90 bracket. I'll be getting my BP checked in a few weeks time so hopefully it's down

Alcohol dehydrates you. BP goes up to compensate.
BP meds have side effects.
Make lifestyle changes first.
Nix the alcohol and drink lots of water and see if it improves.

Hi Clem. During my last "quit" (aka going totally cold turkey) my heart was racing and I was genuinely fearful I was going to have a heart attack. Went to the docs a week later under the cover story of anxiety (wasn't ready to confess all at that point) and my BP was around 148/90 (ish). I was loaned a BP monitor for a couple of weeks recently and it is now around 115-125 / 75-80. That's 11 weeks in.
Yes anxiety raises the BP that's true but I am still quite the stress head and it is certainly reduced.
I had to accept that drinking was really taking its toll on my mind and body and spirit. It gave me absolutely nothing any more.
The human body is pretty amazing and cutting out one thing seems to be doing amazing things. I hope you choose sobriety rather than resorting to medication instead. It really is worth those initial few days or weeks.

Clemsondoc I was diagnosed with high bp when I went in for a routine checkup. I had tried to sober up so as to "look nice" for the doc, but both she and the nurse gave me a look like they knew the story.

I fessed up, told them I was alcoholic. I still have troubles with alcohol but I do know it might take (my experience only) 6-9 days for things to settle on the bp heart rate front. Interestingly, and I researched this but could find nothing on it, heart rate and bp sort of see-saw during the first week. One goes up, the other goes down. Again, just my experience.

That said, unless you're convinced you won't slip, I have had no noticeable side effects from the bp med I take. Half the time it feels almost like a placebo, but placebos work surprisingly well.

Bottom line? Stay entirely sober starting now. Second, see a doctor. If he/she recommends bp meds give it a go. If you have side effects and don't like them, sign off. But I recommend taking your bp every day or two just to keep tabs on it.

Best wishes for your lifetime of sobriety! You can do it!

Thank you all for the quick support and advice it is greatly appreciated and will definitely aid me in my battle. Very glad I joined and posted

Did you let them know that you have a drinking problem? Personally I think getting into treatment first to address the alcoholism would be your best bet, be it rehab, an addiction therapist, AA, or anti-alcohol medications. I'm sure with sobriety alone, it will get your BP down, not to mention end the risk of the the countless other health problems alcohol causes.

Welcome clemsondoc - I hope you'll find that recovery helps the BP and soon you'll have no need for the meds.

D

You'll be much happier and healthier taking nothing. If you start to control your BP with medication, the excuse to drink will be right there. So instead of ingesting two chemicals you don't need daily, if you quit drinking, you won't have to ingest any.

I completely agree that solving the alcoholism has to be my goal. I know if I managed with meds I would be more inclined to lose that battle

I also like you had high bp due to drinking. 20 days sober today and my mp was
105/ 59 this am and no bp meds. Quit drinking. It does the body good. Best of luck. Stick around and watch your daughter grow up.

asixstringnut

My bp went back to normal after I'd been sober for a while. :)

My resting pulse is around 40bpm. I've seen it as low as 35.... freaked a nurse once after I fell on my bike and had to go in for some messed up ribs. Bp is normal 120/80. Quitting wine helped with anxieties which certainly helped several medical metrics.

Update
 

So today my BP is now 117/79 HR 70. That's about one week sober. Very happy with that being it was so high. Now it's just staying sober to keep it that way. Also need to keep diet and exercise and take milk thistle and will get blood work to monitor my fatty liver. Hopefully my enzymes will be normal but I think that will take at least 3 months

Great job, Clemsondoc! So good to hear about your progress. Congrats on one week.

:scoregood