Now I dispatch, used to be a driver

by Steve
(Tulsa oklahoma)

If I can get my blood pressure right I have been dispatching for 7 years to help out but I miss the driving and the money.

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Jun 30, 2016
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It all depends.. NEW
by: Anonymous

Often times High blood pressure is due to a genetic predisposition in even the healthiest of people...

Granted, sodium will cause your kidneys to retain water, which drives your blood pressure up, so cutting sodium and staying hydrated can help at times.

Read up on the "sodium/potassium pump" (it's what makes your heart beat) this is why you can't drink salt water when stranded in the ocean completely dehydrated. You will just "ice-the-cake" and kill yourself

Ive seen some very, very healthy, athletic folks with high blood pressure who MUST take blood pressure medication. Unfortunately, BP meds are derived from snake venom and can cause some nasty side-effects, one of which is a hacking/dry cough that never seems to go away.

You can't cure everything with diet.

Sometimes it's just the stress alone that will drive your blood pressure up. Once it's been up for awhile, it has a tendency to stay there.. and dispatch will do that to you. I dispatched for over ten years.

I've been back on the road for over five years now. Very stressful, a dispatch office, especially in a large company. It starts the second you walk in the door and it stays consistent until you leave (if it is an around the clock 24/7 company)

Cholesterol is the same way. Some people think you can cure high cholesterol with diet. Problem is, you have "dietary" cholesterol, and "blood serum" cholesterol and a nasty genetic predisposition behind it. If you cut dietary cholesterol in hopes of lowering it, your blood serum levels will rise to get the level back up where they were.

Point is: If you are ever diagnosed with high cholesterol, chances are, you will be on Statins for the rest of your life.. regardless of your diet. Statins also carry with them some NASTY side effects.

This is where "Benefit to Risk ratio" becomes the deciding factor in what you decide to do with your body.

Keep that BP under control. Don't trust a diet to do it. Check it daily and watch how it fluctuates throughout the day. You will be surprised.

Your systolic (top number) can rise and fall like an ocean tide. The Diastolic (lower number) is the one you need to be concerned about.

Read up on it. Do your "due diligence"

You can trust me, I'm a registered dietitian... I have schooled myself in a number of things over the years while trucking.. in hopes of one day retiring... which doesnt happen too often with "old school" truckers. We have a tendency to stay with it until the very end.

Very different, the life of a trucker. Get out of that dispatch office and stay out. You won't regret it ~

Been there, did that.

Good luck with everything... and i do hope that a change in your dietary intake will help... it might, it might not. No guarantees....

Jun 30, 2016
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Controlling blood pressure as trucker or dispatcher
by: Hervy

Its very possible to get that blood pressure down. I got mine down with diet alone. Corrected my cholesterol as well.

They gave me pills for both but I didn't take them, just researched the food to eat and the food to let go in order to correct the numbers.

I am sure you already know the food. If not I talk about the diet here.

Good trucker diet

For those who are wondering and are too lazy to follow the link to summarize....
reduce sugar, salt, processed food and simple carbohydrates and it will decrease your insulin level and blood pressure.

Eat more veggies.

Get some exercise and you will greatly increase the effects of the diet correction.

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