If you had high blood pressure, what would you prefer?

[TheImpOfThePerverse2026]

To be told by your doctor you need to lose weight and sort your life out.

OR:

If it gets any higher you'll need to be put on tablets?

What is the normal response from a UK GP?

Both things can be true. Choose your path ..,

Both

I would say it depends on a few things but if it’s lifestyle that’s causing it then yes they may say to change your diet and activity levels or you’ll end up on medication.

Living with high blood pressure due to medical reasons and needing constant medication, I would suggest trying to change your diet to prevent the need for any tablets.

Try to eat healthy and exercise. Apologies if you are already doing this. If you are already trying and if they want you to still lose weight, I don't know. Maybe try to reduce stress.

I am 54 and 5ft 4 inches, and 11 stone. If I cut back food any more I would not be able for my full time job. I already jog a few times a week. I am borderline. They put me on 24 hour monitior. I am still not on tablets fingers crossed. I try not to get stressed. I exercise and eat healthy as always.

Both.

I had slightly elevated BP.
I was put on BP meds, three different ones. All terrible side effects. My dad has been on BP meds for 35 yrs and never had side effects!
I've lost nearly 2 stone BP its back to normal.

If you are in peri / menopause, HRT will probably sort it (as well as losing weight / exercise).

Evidence now shows that HRT is more effective than statins or blood pressure meds at reducing BP & incidence of cardiac events.

I chose my path.

I went to my GP three years ago when I was very unhealthy. My BP was 140/90 and I weighed 85kg.

I would have preferred him to give me a bollocking, fat shamed me and told me to sort myself out. Instead, he said Oh, I might need to put you on BP tablets.

I'm now 25kg down, BP at 104/78 but his response still bugs me.

Surely doctors should be saying this, if it's the case? Given that the majority of people on BP medication are middle aged or older, then surely almost 50% of the population would benefit.
Which forms of it (brand names and amounts of the different bits) are you on if you don't mind me asking? And is there any equivalent for men (of course they don't have menopause, but I've heard of middle aged men getting testostorone)?

So sorry you have experienced that OP.
Weight is not the only thing that can affect BP but in your case you clearly got it under control with better lifestyle (well done!). Sticking you on medication without giving you a chance to try naturally doesn’t seem right.

I am lucky I had a sensible doctor. I had very high BP after my gran died, was not at all overweight and she said no way am I medicating a 33 year old athletic woman who just needs life to calm down a bit. I am so grateful.

Well he probably wanted to treat the high blood pressure more urgently, with tablets, and losing weight and changing your lifestyle takes time, and willpower, and who knows if you’re going to nod in all the right places and actually do it. Meanwhile you have medication to treat something that could cause a serious medical episode.

But surely you knew that weight and general unfitness would be having an impact on your blood pressure? And perhaps he assumed that you had the relevant knowledge and wouldn't want to be lectured about it.

Also, presumably weight isn't the only factor, by far? I am not overweight and yet my BP is routinely over 140. I have ongoing discussions with the doc in which we talk about the possibility of medication.

Both!

@TheImpOfThePerverse2026 I've found that too. I have white coat syndrome. But GPS have it noted now. It's HCAs that start insisting on bp meds. I just say to read my notes as bp is normal at home.

I'm on hrt patches and exercise more now. I'm a bit overweight but am tall so carry it well.

Beetroot tablets can help bp. Trials have been done and proven this.

My GP said I needed to lose weight or I’d be stuck on a very low carb diet for life. Pills held no fear, but the thought of a low carb diet for life was so awful, I lost several stone. The weight loss worked wonders for my BP!

I certainly don’t want to be bollocked by my GP, fat shamed and told to sort myself out. That would not have helped me in any way. My BP is in need of medication no matter what I weigh, unfortunately.

Sorry, what annoyed me. As a doctor he should have advised me to:
Exercise more
Lose weight
Eat more healthily

Instead, his response was to think about tablets.

Are doctors now too worried about being truthful with unhealthy patients?

The important thing with blood pressure is to manage it. Good for you for sorting out a borderline figure with lifestyle changes. Many people don’t manage to do that, or never find out it is a bit high, and end up with strokes or other major health events. Tablets are far preferable.

Thank you 😊

I'm healthy now and eat a lot of beetroot ❤️

It was a shocker tbh.

My gp gave me the choice between those two options, but considering this came to light during assessment for having cataracts op and I risked not being able to go ahead with the op if my bp wasn't well managed I went with the tablets.

I’m still making slow progress to also lose weight but it’s a bit if a roller coaster ride and taking a while.

The question is how many people actually manage to make a significant enough change to avoid requiring medication, and whether harsh words from a gp helped.

The weird thing is, there are two doctors at our practice. One is German and very strict, she would have bollocked me to high heaven with the BP reading. The other is a Greek Dr who's lovely but was wishy-washy with his advice.

Is this a joke?

I’m a GP and I’ve lost count of the number of times people have moaned on MN that their GP advised them to lose weight. The general consensus is that everyone who is overweight knows they’re overweight, and doesn’t need to be fat shamed. And that GPs who mention weight are being nasty and dismissive, and ignoring everything else.

With this in mind, I’m quite reluctant to remind people of the impact of their obesity, especially as it’s usually met with an assertion that they don’t eat anything anyway, so couldn’t possibly eat less. And I can see them writing me off as just another weight-obsessed doctor who doesn’t understand how hard weight loss is. (Which is rubbish, as I’ve battled with weight for 40 years!)

GPs can’t win.

If you're really a GP @BerryTwister it's that kind of post that makes me extremely reluctant to seek assistance from a GP if I'm in any way overweight. Thankfully at the moment I am in the healthy weight range, so I might dare to ask for help and not be sat there thinking that the GP is fed up to the back teeth of fat people daring to go to the doctors.

If my blood pressure is up, telling me something I already know is pretty pointless. People know they need to eat right and exercise. It’s condescending and a waste of time to repeat that information and delay treatment.

A conversation about barriers to success about the perfect path could be useful. As could talking about what medical intervention the GP can offer.