High blood pressure.

[neurosis]

I thought we were talkin a 5th of Vodka every other day kinda stuff.

I can drink a 5th of whiskey in two days.  I can't move for two days after.   

[mowens]

It varied quite a bit over 30 years. Pretty much if I wasn't working, I would be drinking or drunk, or "asleep".  It was enough that my wife moved in with our daughter's family, in Cleveland.

[pmartin]

Amlodipine/Lisinopril is what did the trick for me. The docs struggled for years before that to keep my BP in check.

Now one thing that I figured out for myself with the help of the internet of course is to make a Virgin Mary as follows. Salt free tomato juice. I couldn't find any locally so I make my own using salt free tomato sauce and water. I also make a spicy apple cider vinegar by slitting open hot peppers and letting them steep in the cider vinegar for several weeks after which I pour the vinegar into an old hot sauce bottle and pour more vinegar over the peppers. I can do that several times after which I blend up the peppers to make my own hot sauce (Hot sauce is loaded with salt). For the Bloody Mary I fill the glass about 2/3 full with tomato juice, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and shake in some Potassium Chloride, which is a salt substitute. Add ice (the Vodka is optional) I found that this once a day drops my BP about 10 points all by itself.   

[thad]

Oh. That's all? I thought we were talkin a 5th of Vodka every other day kinda stuff.

Crazy that's all it took for your numbers to be that high.

Yeah, I was expecting more booze than that.

[neurosis]

Now I'm starting to wonder what "a lot of booze" is considered to be.

According to the doctor, it's 2 beers a day for an average size man. Does that mean if you don't drink all week, you can have 14 on Saturday?

[Dan_AKA_ROY23]

Brother in law's Mom just spent a couple of weeks in hospital internally all bunged up.
Apparently, all down to very low potassium levels

Yikes. Wishing the best for her. I didn't know LOW potassium levels are harmful, also. I know if too high (over 6 on the test) they don't mess around. Treat asap. (mine was like 5.6 or something, elevated) Cut losarten in half and normal again a month later (in the 4's).

[Dan_AKA_ROY23]

Now I'm starting to wonder what "a lot of booze" is considered to be.

According to the doctor, it's 2 beers a day for an average size man. Does that mean if you don't drink all week, you can have 14 on Saturday?

Compare U.S. and UK doctors. UK is much more lenient (i.e. you can drink twice the rec amount as U.S.)

[neurosis]

Just a little update on my BP.

After a week and a half of eating nothing but bananas and apples for lunch and then salads with some kind of protein on them for dinner, by BP has gone from a consistent 180 / 95 or higher (some times a little lower, spiked to 200/98 at one point) I've been getting between 130/85 to 140/90 consistently throughout the day for the last 4 days. 

Not great, but better.

[Smit]

Just a little update on my BP.

After a week and a half of eating nothing but bananas and apples for lunch and then salads with some kind of protein on them for dinner, by BP has gone from a consistent 180 / 95 or higher (some times a little lower, spiked to 200/98 at one point) I've been getting between 130/85 to 140/90 consistently throughout the day for the last 4 days. 

Not great, but better.

Glad to hear that.

You can live with those numbers until you get a primary care physician. I expect they'll want to get the diastolic down a bit still.

[gcode]

We had a guy here die in his late 40's of liver cancer
Someone told me he "drank a handle of whiskey a day"
I didn't know what a handle was so I googled it 
A handle is 1.75ml or 59.5 oz
I must say, he held is liquor well. I had no idea.
I cannot imagine drinking that much.. let alone drinking that much
and holding down a job.

[mowens]

I didn't drink at work, usually. I'd stop by the liquor store on the way home. I'd drink it all in about 30-45 minutes. Sometimes I would go back for more.


It was enough to make me so miserable that something had to change.

[ghuns]

We had a guy here die in his late 40's of liver cancer
Someone told me he "drank a handle of whiskey a day"
I didn't know what a handle was so I googled it 
A handle is 1.75ml or 59.5 oz
I must say, he held is liquor well. I had no idea.
I cannot imagine drinking that much.. let alone drinking that much
and holding down a job.

That's professional level drinkin right there.

[ghuns]

Yeah, I was expecting more booze than that.

 

[neurosis]

I worked with a guy for about 20 years who drank like that.  He would sneak drinks in to the shop and hide them in a desk drawer. He'd pour out a half a can of sprite and fill it back up with canadian mist and would do that before work and then again at lunch every day.

I tried to hang out with him after work a few times and he would be so drunk by 5pm that he couldn't function.  I took the guy fishing one time and had to cut the trip short because he was too drunk and ended up falling in the river. 

Some how the guy is still alive but he's severely disabled due to poor health. He doesn't drink like he used to but still has a few cocktails a day from what I hear.

I don't know how people can go through life drunk *all* the time.  I guess that saying "reality is an acquired taste" applies more to some than others. 

[ghuns]

I don't know how people can go through life drunk *all* the time.

Uh... Cause they are alcoholics?