Staying HEALTHY in retirement, with enjoying retirement activities

I agree with you. My BP is perfectly fine and always has been, but I know some friends who have issues with theirs even though they exercise a bit and are certainly not overweight.

Human health can be odd. I’ve even been told by my cardiologist to use more salt to avoid other health issues. Doing so hasn’t raised my blood pressure at all. He says I’m not alone, but they don’t advertise it or “everyone” would say they’re in “my” group. Most aren’t. And some are in the “wrong” group getting high BP even though they seemingly do things right, so meds are their only help if they want to lower it.

Medicine doesn’t have all the answers yet. Humans are a complex species.

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I so agree! Unless one closely monitors their BP trying ‘alternative ways’ it is very dangerous to one’s body and one’s health. “to be able to use no or less blood pressure drugs”.

Uncontrolled and unregulated high blood pressure can damage one’s kidneys - as happened to Tina Turner. From Wikipedia " Turner opted for homeopathic remedies to treat her high blood pressure that resulted in damage to her kidneys and eventual kidney failure. Her chances of receiving a kidney were low, and she was urged to start dialysis. She considered assisted suicide and signed up to be a member of Exit,[267] but Bach offered to donate a kidney for her transplant. Turner had kidney transplant surgery on April 7, 2017.[268][269]" Tina is still going at age 82, living a quieter life in Switzerland - became a Swiss citizen – I admire that she learned the language and used it for her citizenship steps. It helps that her husband Erwin Bach is German (Schweitzer-Deutsch is a dialect of German – how German is pronounced). “In January 2022, Turner and her husband purchased a $76 million waterfront estate overlooking Lake Zurich at the eastern border of Stäfa.[256] She has lived in Château Algonquin in Küsnacht on the shore of Lake Zurich since 1994.[257][258]”.

By the way, a lot of wealthy people live in that area overlooking Lake Zurich – my good friend in Zurich (whose husband is a real estate attorney) says the taxes are much less in that area (substantially less - like 1/3rd, outside of Zurich and canton Zurich). So glad Tina Turner has a long standing relationship and marriage to a man who has helped her continue to live with donating a kidney. Erwin Bach is now 66.

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I was diagnosed with moderately high B.P. several years ago and put on meds. I changed my diet (which was pretty healthy to begin with), started a regular yoga practice and took up running (I still do those things). When I don’t run I walk extensively. Lost weight (I was never overweight).

Guess what? B.P did not go down. I’m still on meds.

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My husband and I love the Tina Turner show we saw in London. We also love Zurich and Lake Zurich. Switzerland is another place I would come back to visit.

This is H, too. He wishes he could be off the medication but diet and exercise are not enough for him. He swims 3k 6x a week, runs a little, and eats a pescaterian diet. Me, I also exercise a lot but eat jars of Nutella and my bp stays low. We do what we have to do!

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I had undiagnosed HBP. I had lost an extensive amount of weight and exercised regularly, yet my BP was around 180/120. I needed medication. Lose weight and exercise is not always the answer.

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My friend that lives in Switzerland (grew up in US and our parents were close friends) saw her show years ago in Zurich and loved it. I saw the movie/recording of her concert in South America - she was fabulous. At that time, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, and Paul McCartney broke the record respectively in Maracanã Stadium. - for highest ticketed attendance, over 100,000 and I believe about 108,000 people. At one point, some people were pushing a bit on the security personnel in front – and Tina took command with a very firm voice telling them to stop moving forward and start moving back a bit – and she repeated the same instructions until the crowd complied.

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Interesting… only 11 pounds is the threshold, apparently:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/01/weight-gain-knee-pain/

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I found this article about knee pain - quite comprehensive IMHO. Looking up the weight limit suggested, it is 9 lb less than ‘top weight’ before crossing into obesity for my height. And I weigh more than that, so I wear knee protectors for activity to help protect my knees - they help me keep knees in correct alignment and do give support. A bit of compression probably also helps with inflammation during my exercise movements. If I know I am going on a long walk, I will pull the protectors over my slacks.