How much can blood pressure be reduced?

[Sunnyside4]

Does anyone know how much blood pressure levels can be reduced by medication and life style changes? I'm asking as my 83 year old Mum has an extremely high reading.

this is relative to a lot of things, activity levels, is she overweight, does she drink etc.

it’s normal for BP to raise as you get older because the arteries stiffen.

but if she’s morbidly obese, doesn’t do any exercise and drinks like a fish, fixing those things is going to bring her BP a lot more than someone who is a healthy weight, still walks their pet dog and doesn’t drink alcohol, as their BP is likely only raised due to age.

She's only 4'92 but about 9.5 stone, so yes, comes under obese. She does walk for about 20 mins 4x a week and does the odd bit of dancing in the house, so probably not too bad for an 83 year old. Her diet isn't bad, but isn't perfect. These are areas I think she could make an adjustment. Doesn't drink, add salt to stuff. A big one is trying to relax and not get worked up and I've already spoken to her about this. She's a very full on person, it's about her and straight into moaning about others, she's always getting annoyed with other people (has fallen out with so many over the years, she only really has family who she winds up!).

As you get older the blood vessels just give up a bit....https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/high-blood-pressure/high-blood-pressure-and-older-adults#:~:text=Your%20body's%20network%20of%20blood,habits%20and%20feel%20just%20fine.

So I'm in my 50s and my blood pressure is sky high, I can do a bit to bring it down, like I could lose a stone, but frankly not enough to make a difference to how bad it is. I'm on medication for it that brings it down to just above normal rather than A&E numbers. It's a genetic thing for me, I eat well, I exercise, I walk a lot - but the genes get me.

Anything helps but once at 83 a lot of people need medication.

you need to be careful trying to reduce BP at her age - lower is not always better. Best advice will be from her GP who has access to her medical history etc.

Here is a web page from the Mayo Clinic that shows 10 ways of reducing high blood pressure and how much you can expect them to reduce blood pressure by. As Greybeardy posted, ask your mother to check with her GP practice as to what her blood pressure should be and what is a healthy range.

10 ways to control high blood pressure without medication - Mayo Clinic

Losing 4.5 stone has brought my blood pressure back into normal range. I also exercise regularly now. It has been a total lifestyle change. I'm not sure that she will be able to do that much at her age, the damage has already been done, although losing weight can do no harm.

those figures put her in the overweight range not the obese range. As ever though, the numbers need interpreting in context and if she has lost height with age that fudges things slightly too (will give her an erroneously high BMI).

Thanks for your replies, so far. She had an assessment last week for a minor op at hospital and apparently it was 204/79 - they took it four times and she said she wasn't worried about the appointment. She's had it checked again at pharmacy and it was 180/?. She has to get it down for the operation, so has been in touch with GP. They're giving her another test today, and I've told her if they say it's high, she must ask them for advice on what she needs to do.

thinking just about getting the operation done, if it stays around about the same as the pharmacy reading/has been documented around about the same or lower at the GP over the last 12 months or so it may not necessarily need much doing in order to proceed (depending a bit on her medical history, the nature of the operation and the anaesthetic options for doing that procedure, etc). If it's regularly coming up around about the 200mmHg mark then that probably does warrant a bit of controlling, but again depends on the nature of the operation etc. If it's 160-180ish, then it may be that a conversation between the GP/anaesthetist/surgeon about the relative pros and cons of treating vs the risk of waiting several weeks to optimise BP is sensible. (DOI: anaesthetist)

One positive is that it's a local and she's fine with that.

Pretty sure she hasn't seen a GP in the last year, so that doesn't help over readings. GP is meant to see her every year to assess how she is on her epilepsy medication but more often that not it's a call. I do know it was high before this, as nurse suggested she get a blood pressure monitor but she doesn't have the flexibility to put it on and wouldn't want to get her head around working out if reading was positive or not.

The hospital did tell her they needed GP's OK to do operation, but GP obviously hasn't agreed as it's been cancelled.

what operation is it? It would be relatively unusual to postpone a minor local procedure for a bit of BP. In her holistic wellbeing it's probably best to see the GP and at least assess whether treating it will help/prevent any problems long term, but it may be that just a phone call will fix the problem of whether the operation can be done.

It's for cateracts.

Update, she doesn't know the blood pressure reading taken by the nurse this afternoon, but she qas asked to wait until a GP could see her. She was told she should commence tablets immediately, and had her first one earlier. She has to get her blood pressure checked every week at the surgery for six weeks.