Interesting thread. I am neither a workout nor nutrition focused person -- I've been pretty healthy with mild exercise (maybe 2 times a week 30 minute low-strain "workout" plus b-ball once a week). I have always eaten anything I want and have always weighed 145 at 5'8" (probably closer to 5'7" now).
I am 58 years old and just last year I stopped basketball because of an aching hip and will be getting it replaced in a month (hope to play again!). My concern is that all of a sudden my blood pressure is high - actually just systolic - which reads on average about 145-150 (with home testing for a few months after being alerted to the issue at dr visit). I haven't had any doctor advice or meds related to the issue (appontment upcoming) but with the dietary expertise I am hearing here, I thought I'd ask about advice you may have to limit sodium intake and anything else you do to keep BP normal.
I used to always read 120/80 (or thereabout) so I am definitely concerned about this. While I don't think much about my diet, my wife almost always cooks a healthy (balanced) dinner. Overall I probably have a high-carb / high caloric (for my size) diet and I need the calories to sustain my weight (i drop weight easily). I dont have a clue as to how much sodium I consume, I only drink water (no soda) and about 2-3 cups of coffee a day.
Any thoughts about diet or exercise with reard to my blood pressure? As an aside - anyone here ever have a sudden rise in BP and discovered a reason for it?
Minor things can get you into slight trouble with BP. For example drinking caffeinated coffee a few times a day can spike your BP by 15-20 on any given day. I once saw a patient who by cutting back to 1 cup of coffee, and by making a concerted effort to eliminate salt lowered his BP by almost 30 within 6 months. Kudos on staying in good shape so long, and I'm sure you will be back on the court in no time. TP. Also I too have heard the beets can have amazing effects. Overall their caloric content v nutrient ratio makes them a good choice for anyone looking to eat healthy.
How about green tea? Will it raise bp?
Certain studies show that it lowers bp over a long time by about 2/2 (when we are talking about someone with high BP, going from say 140/90 ---> 138/88 is statistically insignificant, or just daily fluctuation,) while other studies show that immediately after drinking green tea your BP raises a bit, just to drop back to its pre ingested levels.
Basically, its kind of similar to coffee. And as Koz pointed out above, alot of the results of coffee (and GT) on BP are significant on a case by case basis. Certain people can drink a ton of the stuff, and have no effect, while others can't have any.
Caffeine is a vasodilator, which increases blood flow, resulting in a decrease in arterial blood pressure. If you are interested in how it works on a biochemical level, reading the abstract to the following link is a decent explanation of how nitric oxide effects phosphodiesterase (
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijvm/2010/834060/.)
Basically if the stuff doesn't make your heart feel like its going to explode, it probably doesn't have an effect in the ball park of say a bottle of salt.