About two weeks ago, I ran out of my usual blood-pressure medication, Telmisartan.
My regular clinic happens to be near my former workplace in Shimbashi, which makes it surprisingly inconvenient to visit from my current office in Jimbōchō. For one reason or another, I ended up going two weeks without taking the medication.
That said, I did check my blood pressure once during that period—about a week ago, if I remember correctly—and the systolic reading was around 120, which wasn’t much different from usual, so I didn’t think much of it.
However, when I finally visited my doctor last Friday, I was surprised to see a reading of 150/96, much higher than expected.
Before I started taking telmisartan years ago, my blood pressure was typically in the 130s over around 90, so this number seemed unusually high.
Come to think of it, since about last week I had occasionally felt a kind of light, floating sensation—as if I were walking on clouds—along with bouts of heart palpitations, slight headaches in the middle of the night, and an odd />
Now, several days have passed since I resumed taking telmisartan, but my blood pressure still shows no sign of coming down. Over the past few days, my readings have consistently been in the 150s for the systolic, with the diastolic often exceeding 100.
Thinking back, since the start of the year I may have been consuming too much salt through eating out and business trips. In particular, I’ve been going out for ramen more often at lunch, and I’ve also been snacking on rice crackers with my wine in the evenings. The ramen habit is probably due to my recent fondness for Ikkyō in Jimbōchō. As for the rice crackers, my wife often buys small individually wrapped packs, and I tend to open them during my evening drink.
Another possible factor is that I haven’t been drinking enough water. Especially in winter, I dislike having to get up during the night to use the bathroom, so I’ve been intentionally limiting my fluid intake from the evening onward. I suspect this may have gradually had a negative effect on my blood pressure as well.
In any case, it’s clearly not good for these numbers to continue like this. So in addition to taking my medication, I plan to pay closer attention to my diet for a while. For now, that means no ramen, no rice crackers, and making a conscious effort to drink more water.
I’ll report on how things progress here on the blog from time to time.