The Truth Behind High Blood Pressure: 21 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

12. Can Sleep Apnea Cause High Blood Pressure?

Yes, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure. So let's first talk about what sleep apnea is or obstructive sleep apnea. If you are a person who snores; and you know if you snore because someone has told you.

If you're calling hogs at night and you're snoring, snoring, snoring but then all of a sudden you stop breathing, that's apnea. And then after you stop breathing there's a little struggle, sometimes some snoring and then you start breathing again. That is obstructive sleep apnea.

Now of course you want to consult with your physician to get an official diagnosis. But that is typically how it presents. And people have a certain look usually, when they have obstructive sleep apnea, they often have a thick neck. And they can get symptoms like headaches during the days and even nights, or they can have daytime somnolence meaning they're sleepy all the time. But guess what? Thin people with thin necks can also have obstructive sleep apnea.

What happens when you stop breathing is that your oxygen level goes down. And when your oxygen level is low, your body compensates for it by your heart rate increasing and your blood pressure increasing. And so you can get elevated blood pressure from sleep apnea. So here's the thing, if you have chronic sleep apnea then even when you're walking around breathing well and you're not actually having the low oxygen, well over time your body's blood pressure will increase consistently. So can sleep apnea cause high blood pressure? Yes.

13. Does Aspirin Help High Blood Pressure?

This is actually a very complex question about aspirin. Because aspirin does have many great properties but it has some risks as well. So let me just start by talking about that really quickly. We do know that a baby aspirin or an 81-milligram tablet of aspirin has been shown to help to reduce heart disease and strokes. However, however, aspirin can also have some harmful effects.

Aspirin can cause increased bleeding like stomach bleeding, GI bleeding, or intestinal bleeding. And so you have to weigh the risks and the benefits. When it comes to aspirin for heart attack prevention you absolutely must consult with your physician because taking a daily aspirin is not for everyone.

If you are between the age of 40 and 59 and you are at high risk for a heart attack, for example, meaning you have a 10% risk or greater of having a heart attack or a stroke within 10 years, then your doctor may feel like the benefits of aspirin outweigh the risks.

However, if you are someone who is much older, then yes your risks for heart attacks will increase as you get older. But guess what? So does the risk for bleeding, for hitting your head and having a brain bleed, or from having a stomach bleed. So again, do not take a daily aspirin unless you consult with your physician.

Does aspirin reduce high blood pressure? Well, there was actually a study that was done, a relatively small study, where they gave a certain group aspirin in the morning. Another group aspirin at night. And another group got no aspirin. Now for people who had pre-hypertension or elevated blood pressure or people who had just mild high blood pressure, when they took that aspirin at night it did decrease their blood pressure significantly.

However, other portions of the study showed that for patients who were on blood pressure medications or who had moderate or really high blood pressure, aspirin didn't help them at all. What does that mean? We don't have sufficient data to support the idea of aspirin lowering blood pressure.

Should you take aspirin to lower your blood pressure? No, that is not a recommendation. Again, make sure you consult with your physician in everything you do. But at this time there are no recommendations to take aspirin to lower blood pressure.

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14. Can Hypothyroidism Cause High Blood Pressure?

Classically when we talk about the thyroid causing high blood pressure, we talk about hyperthyroidism or Graves' disease. Because we know that can cause heat intolerance, a fast heart rate, and it can cause high blood pressure.

Hyperthyroidism can also cause you to have frequent bowel movements, hair loss, or thinning. We think of hypothyroidism as being an underactive thyroid where you get a slow heart rate, you get weight gain, and lower metabolism, things of that nature. But guess what? Hypothyroidism can actually also be associated with high blood pressure. So yes, even hypothyroidism can be associated with hypertension.

15. Is Oatmeal Good For High Blood Pressure?

First, let's talk about oats, grains, and fiber. If you're talking about whole grains then whole grains have a lot of fiber which has some very heart-healthy effects. And we know that anything that's heart-healthy can also be good for blood pressure. And so when you eat certain things like oatmeal or oat brand, you have to be careful.

If you're dealing with the whole grain, then yes it can have some beneficial effects. And by whole grain, I mean all three parts. You want that outer layer of the bran because that's loaded with fiber. Then you have that endosperm and then you have that inner layer, the germ which has all kinds of vitamins.

Now, if you're talking about oatmeal that is processed and loaded with sugar and it's been stripped of a lot of that fiber, then no. That's not going to have very many heart-healthy benefits or blood pressure benefits because when it is stripped... Even when it says it's enriched, when it's enriched they may put some of the vitamins back in but you're not getting all of the fiber.

And fiber is the key to being heart healthy and blood pressure healthy. When you're eating oatmeal, you want to make sure that you're eating something that's like an oat bran or something that is a whole grain. When you do that and you have that fiber then the fiber has been associated with potentially lowering blood pressure.

Now you know, with this there are a lot of anecdotal studies. We don't necessarily have any huge, randomized controlled trials. But what some studies do suggest is that eating this fiber can help to increase your nitric oxide, which can help to dilate blood vessels and decrease blood pressure. We also know that eating this fiber can help to bulk your diet, which can make you get full faster, which is healthy. And it can help to decrease your weight, and decrease that BMI.

We also know that having a healthy BMI or body mass index can be associated with lowering blood pressure. In fact, for every two kilograms or between four to five pounds that you lose if you are overweight, then that can lower your blood pressure by 5 to 10 points (5 to 10 millimeters mercury). So that can be associated with having these whole grains, oats, or oatmeal in your diet.

So bottom line, if you're eating oats that are whole, okay, or something like oat bran that is a whole grain then it has certain fibers that can be associated with lowering cholesterol, unclogging arteries, and potentially lowering the blood pressure. Make sure you consult with your physician and your nutritionist.

16. Can High Blood Pressure Cause Ringing In The Ears?

Yes. And I do have many patients who have had that ringing in the ears. So when the blood pressure is elevated, we know that blood pressure is the force that the blood exerts against the blood vessels, right? And so if you have high blood pressure and it is high in the blood vessels in your brain, then you can get a pounding, literally, that's pressure on the arteries in your brains, even near your ears. And it can cause a pounding in the ears associated with a headache as well.

It can cause a ringing in the ears. So can high blood pressure be associated with a ringing in the ears? Yes, but here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to wait for symptoms before you decide whether or not you have high blood pressure. Because remember hypertension is a silent killer. Make sure you're seeing your physician regularly and checking your blood pressure to know.

17. Do Energy Drinks Cause High Blood Pressure?

People have so much to do all the time that they love a good energy drink. You see them advertised, you see people scooting around drinking those drinks. Here's the deal. Energy drinks are loaded with caffeine. Now I will say there's not really enough data out, enough randomized controlled trials out on caffeine to give an outright answer to the question is caffeine good, or is caffeine bad? But there are a lot of studies that have been done on caffeine.

And so with energy drinks, do they cause high blood pressure? It's possible. Now we do believe just in general that if adults have less than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day then it's not likely to have many detrimental effects. And for children, they need less. Something like 2.5 milligrams per kilogram. But if you have energy drinks and you're drinking a lot, especially if you're getting up to 400, 800 milligrams of caffeine per day, then certainly it can be associated with high blood pressure.

And here's how it works. Caffeine is a stimulant. It's literally a drug. In fact, it's the most commonly used drug in the world. Isn't that something? I find that to be interesting. But what caffeine does is that it blocks adenosine receptors. And adenosine receptors can be found in the brain, in the heart, and in the kidneys. And when adenosine receptors are met with adenosine they make you calm and cool, right? They kinda make you a little sleepy in the brain.

If adenosine is on adenosine receptors in the heart they slow the heart rate down. But imagine if caffeine is blocking those adenosine receptors, in the heart specifically, then instead of your heart rate being slow and cool, it's going to speed up.

So caffeine can cause you to have a fast heart rate. And in some people, it can cause jitteriness or anxiety, and guess what? In some people, it can elevate their blood pressure.

So especially if you're already at risk for high blood pressure, or if you have hypertension you definitely want to consult with your physician. But having caffeine, especially in excess of 400 milligrams a day can, in some cases, exacerbate high blood pressure.

18. Can High Blood Pressure Cause Seizures?

The short answer is yes, it's possible. When you're dealing with high blood pressure in the vessels, yes, that affects the blood vessels in the brain. And if that blood pressure is very high, pushing against the blood vessels in the brain, guess what? It can actually cause those blood vessels to burst. You can get a hemorrhagic stroke from very high blood pressure.

If this happens, then certainly, you can have irritation in the brain, you can actually have swelling in the brain getting pushed a certain way in the brain causing all kinds of abnormal firing. And ultimately it could lead to a seizure.

Again, you don't sit around and wait for neurological deficits or for seizures to find out whether or not your blood pressure is managed. You go see your doctor, you manage that blood pressure. But can high blood pressure potentially cause a seizure? Yes.

19. Does High Blood Pressure Cause Blurred Vision?

When your blood pressure is high, it can cause pressure on these tiny blood vessels in the back of your eyes or in your retina. When this happens, sometimes these tiny blood vessels can burst from the pressure and they can bleed. And this can cause hypertensive retinopathy. And if you have this hypertensive retinopathy, and certainly if it's something that's recurrent or long going, you can even have a detachment of the retina. And so yes, high blood pressure can cause blurry vision.

20. Can A Tooth Infection Cause High Blood Pressure?

That's a really interesting question because indirectly there are mechanisms where I can see a tooth infection causing high blood pressure. Number one, pain. If you've ever had a tooth infection and certainly the way my patients describe it to me, that hurts. And it hurts quite a bit, especially when you're trying to eat foods that you like and you're sitting up here with a decayin' tooth, it causes pain. Guess what? Pain causes stress. Stress causes stress hormones to surge. Stress hormones cause blood vessels to tighten or vasoconstriction and this can cause high blood pressure. So yes, having a tooth infection can lead to high blood pressure. Certainly, if you're having a lot of pain involved.

21. Is Celery Good For High Blood Pressure?

There are many anecdotal studies about celery to suggest that it is a good way to lower blood pressure naturally. However, there's no huge, randomized controlled trial where I can give you a definitive answer of "take this much celery and it will lower your blood pressure by this much." I don't have that evidence.

But I can say this, celery has coumarins which can help to increase vascular flow. There have been studies to suggest that it has diuretic properties like a water pill which can potentially help to lower blood pressure naturally. Celery also has vitamin D, vitamin C, it has vitamin K and it is a low sodium vegetable, which is good for blood pressure.

Also, it is a bulking vegetable, meaning that if you eat celery that helps to fill you up and it can keep you from eating some unhealthy foods. So celery can be good for lowering your body mass index which of course can help to lower blood pressure. So overall, is celery something that can help you to lower blood pressure naturally? Yes. Can I tell you definitively how much celery? And exactly what it will do? No. Make sure you consult with your physician.

Conclusion

Remember high blood pressure is the silent killer. And so you must consult with your physician. You must get your blood pressure checked. Just because you're walking around, having no symptoms, feeling great, feeling footloose and fancy-free, that does not mean that you do not have the diagnosis. Make sure you find out if you have hypertension, this silent killer so that you can get it controlled.

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