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Stress led to Hypertension

Editor's note: This story was originally published in the My Blood Pressure Newsletter. If you are interested in having your blood pressure story told, please email Kellie or Steve at support@my-blood-pressure.com.

My Story - Michael Stichel

As far as I know I have had high blood pressure since my childhood - sometimes more, sometimes less. This seems to be related to a part of my family but not all of them - some kind of heritage ..;-)

But there are other dependencies - the worst one was smoking. I used to smoke almost 3 packs a day for a long time, plus good food and the good german beer.

In 1999 I felt so terrible that I stopped smoking right away - I just threw them away and did not touch any kind of tobacco anymore up to now. I felt better but started to eat cookies, any kind of chocolate e.t.c. resulting in more than 16 Kg overweight.

Last year in January I was close to reaching the 90 Kg Level from 70 Kg 6 years ago with 169 cm height.

Then I started to do sports again - same as I did 15 years ago - martial arts, jogging, swimming, Inliners, walking. In May 2005 I reached 80 Kg. My sporting activities increased and I felt very good for a while with an "acceptable" BP.

Mid August my BP reached the 180-190 over 90-110 levels sporadically, and then it did not turn back to lower values. I felt dizzy from time to time and also had headaches. That was the point when I went to the Doctor. My Heart was checked and physically everything seems to be o.k.  So I assume, that the present workload in my Job and some additional "bad thoughts" out of a private situation might cause this trouble.

However, I`m monitoring my BP with the My Blood Pressure software quite carefully.

I did it sporadically for a while since I bought my license, but since August 22nd I measure my BP twice a day. Presently my average BP is at 120-130  over 75-85 - but with a little help of the chemical industry. ;-)) But the tendency goes clearly down to normal values, and I hope I can get off these pills again sooner or later.

Michael Stichel, Stuttgart, Germany