Blood Pressure and Flying....

[Bob Martin]

I've heard the little blue pill will lower BP........(viagra)
anybody try that? Does it work to lower a BP readings at the Doctors office?

[Tom Navar]

Well, Bob, you are going to open a can of worms (NPI) with that one. Yes, the little blue pill acts as what we call an "alpha adrenergic antagonist", and can drop the BP. In fact there are cases in which enthusiastic consumers, thinking that if one pill is good, three should be great, have had severe syncopes during certain strenuous exercise.
Best advice is to establish a sound, realistic diet and exercise regime for life, and, trite as it may sound these days, "see your doctor".
Tom Navar, M.D.
Former RV-8 QB
Quietly following from the sidelines.

[TThurston]

Originally Posted by David-aviator

I opted to dust off our tread mill which had not been used for some time. I hate that machine with a passion but much to my surprise and delight, BP came down 10 points over night. All it takes is 20 or 30 minutes a day. I've rigged up a shelf to hold a lap top computer and kill the time watching great old favorite movies - like Piece of Cake for the umpteenth time.

I read this message just before going out running this morning, and thought about it during the run. Sometimes when I run, my thoughts go in strange directions, and this is what I thought today:

When you spend a little time doing exercise, you sweat. When you sweat, you lose salt and water. The salt and water have to come from somewhere. One of those places is your blood. Your blood volume goes down. With less blood, there will be slightly less pressure -- lower blood pressure.

That's what I think happened to lose 10 points of blood pressure from one session on the treadmill.

[Of course, another thing that happens during exercise, is that extra blood and oxygen go to the legs, heart, and lungs, so less goes to the brain, so any clever ideas you get while running may not neccessarily be as clever as they seemed at the time.]

Long term, the benefits of exercise are better than you temporary loss of blood volume. You actually become more fit and efficient, so the blood pressure comes down naturally.

My .02

[charger81]

Maybe Blood Pressure would increase as you sweat and the blood becomes thicker.

[breister]

I had an instructor in the Air Force who routinely took a shot of Vodka before his physical to prevent the "high blood pressure alarms."

It worked until he got caught.

[bhassel]

I'm on blood pressure medication and my blood pressure with that assist falls within the prescribed limits. What are teh extra hoops I'll have to jump through when I go for my physical?

Thanks,

Bob

[billdianne]

Originally Posted by bhassel

I'm on blood pressure medication and my blood pressure with that assist falls within the prescribed limits. What are teh extra hoops I'll have to jump through when I go for my physical?

Thanks,

Bob

You will need a letter from your doctor stating the medication your on is controlling your hypertension with no adverse effects. also he needs to include 3 recent blood pressure readings.

Make sure the medication your taking is on the faa approved list.

[RV7AV8R]

"When you spend a little time doing exercise, you sweat. When you sweat, you lose salt and water. The salt and water have to come from somewhere. One of those places is your blood. Your blood volume goes down. With less blood, there will be slightly less pressure -- lower blood pressure.

That's what I think happened to lose 10 points of blood pressure from one session on the treadmill.

[Of course, another thing that happens during exercise, is that extra blood and oxygen go to the legs, heart, and lungs, so less goes to the brain, so any clever ideas you get while running may not neccessarily be as clever as they seemed at the time.]"

Blood pressure is a complex system involving the heart, brain, kidneys and the vascular system and it goes up and down a lot depending on your activity at the moment. The kidneys are the main control center and try to keep the BP normal but "normal" can vary over time in a person. You can tweek it a bit short term but long term lower BP is the goal. We need to establish a long term lower Normal set point for the kidneys to target. This is to get past the Medical but more important to avoid the complications of High Blood pressure like heart failure and strokes.

[gbumga]

Hi I've been on BP meds for 7 yrs., mine is hereditary and smoking for 40 yrs didn't help. My AME doesn't require any notes of any kind from my personal Dr. I go in for my renewal and he checks me out and we talk and I get my medical certificate, period, simple and hasn't been any problem since the symptoms started. If meds control your HBP your good to go. heck this isn't something that is going to incompasitate you when flying, exercise, eat right, use BP meds if needed and don't worry about it. Not doing whats needed to correct the HBP problem is a problem, it is known as the silent killer, get it under 140/90 and the damage that is caused to the smallest blood vessels in your organs is stopped. Thats what the Dr. has told me and what I've learned investigating HBP. Gene

[billdianne]

[quote=gbumga;379462]Hi I've been on BP meds for 7 yrs., mine is hereditary and smoking for 40 yrs didn't help. My AME doesn't require any notes of any kind from my personal Dr. I go in for my renewal and he checks me out


My understanding was a letter was a requirement of the FAA not the AME. I received a letter from the FAA stating this would be required. APOA and EAA also said this was a requirement.

I hope your right it would make life a whole lot easier.