So im a relatively healty 27 yo male. I have a family History of hypertension, started in my mother when she was in her late 40s. Over the past 3 months, ive been playing a lot of online poker. I went to my doctor, and my blood pressure was 150/90. He prescribed hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg, and my BP now is about 140/90. I measure it while im playing, and sometimes i get readings as high as 160/100. I play mostly 5 or 9 table MTTs. Usually, i wont get 1st, so there is some feeling of dissapointment when i get eliminated. MY ROI is about 60 percent, so ive been doing well. Could online play be causing me enough stress to raise my BP? has any1 had a similar experience? I would imagine it is more likely if you play online becaue i play 4 tables and get 8x the number of hands or more then in live play which means many more bad beats.
thanks
v

Yes online play could be a contributing factor in raising your blood pressure. Seriously, what are you looking for here.

From the wikipedia page: "Weight reduction and regular aerobic exercise (e.g. jogging) are recommended as the first steps in treating mild to moderate hypertension. Regular mild exercise improves blood flow and helps to reduce resting heart rate and blood pressure. These steps are highly effective in reducing blood pressure, although drug therapy is still necessary for many patients with moderate or severe hypertension to bring their blood pressure down to a safe level." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension#Treatment

Have you started that?

i wasnt asking about the treatment, doctor. Normal 27 year olds dont get HTN. Im not obese and i dont smoke or drink. I was just asking if online play may be stressfull enough to ellicit the fight or flight response, increase the ammt of Norepinephrine in the blood and elavate your BP not only during when you are playing but the rest of the day as well. Was just wondering if any other healhy ppl developed htn from playing online poker.
thanks

FWIW since I def not a doctor.

I wouldn't stress too much about high BP. In Europe and 20 years ago in this country they probably would've said that 150/90 should be watched and told you to start exercising instead of putting you on meds.

You def should try to make some diet/exercise changes in your life.

"I wouldn't stress too much about high BP."

lol. high BP's correlation to risk of cardiovascular disease is continuous/consistent independent of other risk factors and every 20/10 increase over 115/75 DOUBLES the risk of CVD. i applaud the OP for taking a proactive approach to managing his longterm health.

online play could definitely cause enough stress/sympathetic nervous system activation to raise your BP. the real problem is chronic exposure to elevated BPs.. so i wouldn't worry about transient elevations you experience while playing. as always though, consult your doctor if it really worries you.

Joe Kennedy, a major league baseball player, died at the age of 28 a few months ago from a form of hypertension. I guess my point is....it happens.

Do you have any links on this?

I've been trying to read up on the subject.

not on hand, sorry. my data was coming from my pharmacotherapy textbook and class notes from my therapeutics class this quarter (i'm a 2nd year pharmacy student).

look for any medical journal/reputable links regarding JNC 7 guidelines, which are pretty much the gold standard for treating HTN patients these days. that should be a start.

as much as i hate to use it as a 'reputable' source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension has a lot of good info and links to get started.

Are you eating a lot of flour and sugar? if so I'd try to cut back and include celery in your diet.

http://www.holisticonline.com/Remedi...et_therapy.htm

Celery Lowers High Blood Pressure

The lowly celery stick doesn’t get much respect. Popular primarily as a low-calorie snack or cocktail garnish, celery actually has significant health benefits, including reducing blood pressure. Research at the University of Chicago Medical Center are credit with one of the first studies of celery’s effects on blood pressure, which was prompted when the father of one of the scientists noted a drop in his blood pressure from 158/96 to 118/82 after eating ¼ pounds of celery (about four stalks) daily for just one week.

Studies show that celery’s blood-pressure-lowering effects are due to a compound called 3-n-butyl-phthalide, which can reduce blood pressure by an average of 12 -14 percent. According to researchers, phthalide relaxes the arterial muscles that regulate blood pressure, allowing the vessels to dilate. Phthalide also reduces blood levels of stress hormones that can raise blood pressure by causing vessels to constrict. If you have high blood pressure and want to give celery a try, eat four to five stalks a day for a week and observe the effects.

Yes, it will ellicit the fight or flight response. RE: BBV and myriad threads of laptops through walls, windows, tables, etc. People get angry over poker and its obvious it can have an effect on your stress levels/blood pressure. I mean come on... I can literally feel my blood pressure rise when I play poker and am running badly...

It's very easy to raise your blood pressure significantly. Merely being obese can do it, as can simply being overweight. It can rise sharply after a meal, and for some, caffeine can do the trick. It can rise from exercise, or simply from standing up. Lack of sleep can leave you with high blood pressure that lasts throughout the day.

Since high blood pressure can be damaging to your cardiovascular system and every organ, it's definitely never too early to keep an eye on it and ask yourself if there are positive changes you can make to minimize it. The fact that the damage hypertension can cause can be the result of the accumulation of years rather than something as obvious as a stroke makes it easy to not think about, or to consider a problem of people possibly much older than oneself. Since it may be difficult or impossible to undo the effects of years worth of damage, it makes sense to check for hypertension regularly, long before any symptoms arise.

You've certainly come to the right place to inquire. As a poker player w/o hypertension I'm gonna say that poker may elevate your blood pressure while playing and for the rest of the day and if you are at risk due to several other factors may speed the onset. I think we have a med student among us, maybe he can give an even better answer; alternatively, you might have to wait until next semester.

Blarg, shemp,

I'd assume you guys are against medicating unless as a last resort?

Absolutely, Thremp. Of course, as someone who has only nailed a phlebotomist many years ago, I'd need to look at his charts, but I'm concerned that OP's case has gone too far already. Within a few sentences after stating that his blood pressure routinely measures 20 points higher when he plays, he then asks whether or not playing affects his blood pressure. In the mean time, I've little to add to Dr. Maniacut's prescription of better diet and exercise.

Yeah, despite my last post clearing stating the opposite. (Brain function being reduced from time in the gym?) I think he should try diet/exercise before he kills himself with medication etc. But then I feel like the ancillary benefits of diet/exercise are far greater than the relatively minor risks from not that high (Maybe like 135/90? I dunno what is a reasonable reduction from diet/exercise) high blood pressure. But I am not an expert in this field. I'm kinda interested on how the doubling of blood pressure risk goes from 115/75 and up. Is it like the doubling penny experiment where anyone can pay for the first 10 days... The middle 10 days are kinda bad... and the last 10 insane?

Kinda like how they talk about the need to tighten up groundwater quality in the US ... But I digress.

Thremp, there are some side effects to some blood pressure medications that, from my dim recollection of them, struck me as tough to deal with. I guess medication is often a lifesaver, but since diet, supplementation, and exercise can both individually and synergistically work to lower blood pressure, I think I'd rather try those instead unless my state was completely out of control. Not having side effects or disrupting any normal thing in my body that I actually want to keep seems like an extremely good idea. Plus, outside of potentially dealing successfully with your blood pressure, how many other problems might a better diet, some supplementation, and regular exercise address just as a freebie while you're employing them to work on your blood pressure? I'm no doctor and wouldn't rule drugs out for everyone, but I think that medicating someone with bad habits who has every intention of continuing them can often be a poor substitute to trying to get that person to simply live a healthy life in the first place. That would make medicine something of great value still, but for many people, a last resort. I don't think just because a medicine works, you should prescribe it. To extend the idea into absurdity just for fun, though high doses of radiation might kill the germs that cause the common cold, unless the patient is dying, how about some chicken soup and bed rest instead?

Blarg,

I totally agree. And thats what I originally meant. Though not what I said.



Maybe a belated New Years goal of expressing myself better?

I think we share in common the idea of just keeping it simple, sensible, and grounded instead of adding a bunch of stuff into a diet or fitness regimen/philosophy just for fun or because it makes us sound like we're smart or hip or awesome. Anyway that's my philosophy -- 1. What makes sense is plenty good enough; and 2) You're probably gonna have to work at your life a little.

I think so. Just trying to respond to six tables is hectic for me, let alone having to make tough decisions (limit player lol).

What's a whole lot of celery. You do realize that celery is tasteless.

It's definitely not tasteless. That's why it's one of the key ingredients in the soups and stews of European cuisines.

But that's definitely quite a bit of celery. I wonder if it might make its contribution to lowering blood pressure in situations like the one described simply by forcing people to be more "regular."

Its about time i found someone with the same issue. Im 22 and always have been healthy as well. I did drink way to many energy drinks, but have stopped since my hospital visit. Since about august poker has been my only income. I multi-table 30-50 dollar games about 4-5 days a week, depending on school and social factors. Well i didnt sleep much for about 4 days straight, drinkin redbull and other highly cafinated beverages, and then had a midterm on the 5th. I tried to pull somewhat of an all nighter, and my heart started going crazy. I ended up missing my exam and going to the ER. My ekg was messed up and they thought something was seriously wrong with me. My blood pressure was through the roof. Anyways, it was concluded it was just caffine/no sleep/stress. Well since then ive been monitoring my BP, and its still high. I went to the doctors office as a follow up, and yeah still high. He said well just see after all the stress has worn down if its down. Well i have a BP machine, and its still high. The only thing i can think of is poker. I did not tell the doctor i play poker because he would have probably thought it was a joke.

I love playing, and its my job for now I'm no pro, but make enough for me. Ive never had so much money though, and never had more freetime. It fits in perfect with school and girlfriend. I bought a new computer, and going to florida next month. However i really think its messing with my health. I probably should take some time off or something, but its built into my somewhat daily life. Since the hospital it has scared me though. The reasons I think it causes high blood pressure:
-includes gambling
-anger/frustration w/ bad beats, horrible players
-play for hours on end, intensely focused on the game and never stop thinking
-multi-tabling many games multiplies the stress of poker times however many tables you have up
-alone from the instantaneous intensity i think it causes stress even after stepping away
-always feel like i should be making money (and its right there), so always play. its not like going to live tournaments. its right here.
-feeling like i cant relax

i think its obvious these factors increase my blood pressure, just have never heard of it, maybe because its somewhat of a new activity. I dont know what im going to do, I love the game and the benefits, but probably not worth it. maybe if i exersise more and just somehow setup a schedule of times to play, itll help me relax and my heart to be stronger.

If you stay up late to play poker, irregular sleep patterns and just plain working at night have been shown to be big contributors to high blood pressure too.

Gah. There is no hope for me. I'm just gonna have to live with 130/90 and my quadruple rate of heart failure than if I was at 110/70, though umm... Thats like what .001%?

I tested at 180/113 a little while ago. I might drop dead at any minu...