DH has seriously high blood pressure...

[minko]

He just came back from a routine health check at the doctors and they say he's to come back in 2 weeks to be checked again. It was 160/100.

He has had HBP in the past and has a strong family history.

My problem is trying to get him to drink less and lose some weight. He says he 'needs' the alcohol to help him cope with his v. stressful job. I don't drink much at all and don't know how to help him cut down... Any ideas? I realise it's got to come from him but I don't know what to suggest to help him de-stress. He has very little free time at the moment and works v. long hours so his diet and exercise regime is a bit haywire...

Well he needs to take it seriously tbh. Not to freak you out too much but my friends DH had high blood pressure and had a stroke at 32 which left him with chronic pain. Obviously this is rare but you can't believe nothing like that will ever happen to you.

Can you give him a massage a couple of evenings a week? A long hot bath? Sex? Noone needs alcohol to deal with anything.

Surely he can do the weight loss thing though?

I've lost loads of weight recently and he has been eating my new and improved diet too but he hasn't lost any weight. Mainly cos he drinks so much I think (3-4 units a night and more at weekends/holidays). If he cut the alcohol, he'd lose weight automatically...

I think booze is linked to high BP directly, not just indirectly via weight gain. DH had very high BP when he joined the gym a few months back - he drinks very little though, but has a very big family problem of high BP. His dad died at 49 from a heart attack, and his grandad of a heart attack too. He needs to knock the booze on the head, can you convince him at all?

Booze won't really help with stress either - he is just probably making himself feel less than 100% for the next day, so work will be even more stressful.

I doubt it. We've always had different attitudes to alcohol. My parents hardly drank, I don't much unless I'm out with friends. But DH comes from a boozy family where it is the norm. They are the sorts to start with a drink at 11am. They even don't see much harm in a little drink and drive.

It would be very difficult to get DH to stop. He sees it as a crutch to relax him.

I might try with the massages and the sex...

Even without the BP issue it's not great for him to feel he has to drink to unwind. I don't drink either but dh likes a glass of wine in the evenings sometimes. What he would find is that without competition for the bottle it was very easy to drink more than you intend. So now he measures out his glass and that's it. We have a clever glass ting with measurement marked on it that I use for cooking and he uses that so he has exactly a unit.
THe other big thing about BP is reducing salt in your diet. REady meals and soup are particularly noted for being high in salt but are things you can change to home-made stuff with much less in it quite easily.

salt info here

Exercise will be really important as well as cutting down on alcohol - it improves the condition of the heart and the blood vessels by improving their elasticity as well as the anti-stress hormones it triggers (endophins)

He could start with a 20 brisk walk in his lunch break for the first few weeks, even if he just manages 3 times a week, it has enormous benefits. Then eventually he could progress to doing a walk every day plus a longer walk or a swim/bike ride at the weekend.

Salt and potassium balance are quite important - especially for those who have increased sensitivity to sodium. Plenty of unprocessed, fresh foods should help prevent this.

there's nothing you can do until he stops acting like a baby and takes some responsibility. it's easy enough to bring down high bp with diet and exercise, but he needs to do it for himself.