My husband Alan wouldn't eat a piece of red meat (he says stuff like "I NEVER WANT ANOTHER STENT!!) if you paid him to. And salt, forget about it!!! Once a doctor tells him "no salt", that's it for him. And he puts splenda on everything. He likes things super sweet. So he doesn't miss the salt.

I could never give up salt for good. I use the Salt Sense and luckily, my pressure is 100/59 (I'm on zestoric, and I'm in the diabetic protocol out of Cornell Medical Center in NYC).

The odd thing about Blood pressure (and which I really don't understand) is the correct numbers.....What exactly should they be!!!

I mean, I've been taking one blood pressure pill since I'm 26 years old (I was morbidly obese at the time). They started me on Vasotec, I believe it was. The lowest dosage. Did fine on that (or similar ones) still the lowest dosage until I hit my 50's. Then because I had been diabetic since I'm about 40 and was still obese, and before I went to Cornell, my primary care doc said to me "Let's make sure you are on the right blood pressure meds for your kidneys, because you are diabetic". I said "what the hell do my kidneys have to do with blood pressure meds?". He explained the whole connection and then we looked it up in his medical book and he said "oh good, you are on the correct meds" Then I changed medicare advantage plans and found that they no longer covered that particular meds so he switched me to monopril. Still the same low dosage. My pressure would be about 120/70, or 137 over 75 to 80. No light bulbs went off in my head or his head. I felt fine (no headaches).

Then two years ago I go to Cornell medical center and they do a complete physical (and I mean complete), and they go, we want to get your blood pressure down a bit" I say, "why, I'm normal" and they go "no, we have new criteria now, and a person with diabetes should have blood pressure around 100/55 to 110/67 or something like that, can't remember exact numbers but believe me they were much lower than the 120/70. "We want you to reach that goal". So they changed my medicine zestoric from 20/12.5 to 20/25. I found out that part of this med is a water pill med. She told me, "you won't notice much difference, you just might urinate a bit more, but you will see a difference in your numbers".

She was right on the money. I used to go to Cornell once a month so when I changed to the 20/25, when I got there and they would put my arm in this machine that takes my blood pressure 3 times and average it out, I would see each time it would say 100/55, 102/59 105/60. Then the average would be something like 105/66 (sometimes even lower). The first time I said to myself. "oh my god, I must be dying my pressure is so low". I will never forget the doctor coming in and smiling and saying to me "oh my, look at those numbers and giving me a thumbs up sign'. I remember being totally confused and saying "wait a minute, wait a minute, what happened to the 120/70 that every other doctor is saying is normal pressure?"

The doctor says "we now know that in diabetic people, because diabetics are at risk for strokes, heart disease, etc. etc., the lowers numbers are preferable. Same thing with your glucose readings.". In the past I would go to my primary doctor and if my sugar was 150 in fasting mode he would go, that's not bad and I would eat myself silly.

At Cornell, they would have none of that. They say the criteria for diabetes is different now. It's something like 70 to 105 if you are not diabetic. And if a person is diabetic, their sugar should not go above 120 (I mean, that's what they want it to be. But if it goes above 139, they will change the meds to bring it down. So everything I thought I knew about diabetic numbers has been drastically changed. It seems that the longer you keep your sugar as low to normal as possible, the better for the other organs. And especially for the neuropathy in my toes (which I never noticed in my life, thank god for that).

Alan's sugar by the way is never over 90. I check his too.

Now, because I take Lantus, and I watch my diet like a hawk, my sugar is usually 90 to 118 in the morning. They are pleased as punch at that.

But I really am confused about the numbers of the blood pressure. I have always thought 120/70 was great and when I watch the shows on ER, or Discovery and they take somebody's blood pressure and it says a person's is 120/70 the paramedic goes "oh, that's great".

so what the hell is the correct number? 120/70 or 100/60 (like my Cornell doctors are saying). I mean, These are endocrinologist at one of the top medical centers in the country. And I'm in a special protocol (which I broke by the way, they never saw anyone lose weight, lower their blood pressure and lower their sugar number), That was a first for them. I'm happy but I don't get the big difference in the numbers.

I mean, if 100/66 is the better number, how come all doctors all over the place, don't change the person's medicine to lower it to that number.

Understand what I'm getting at?

Oh, and when I tell my friends what my pressure is, absolutely every single one of them goes "oh my god, it's too low, my doctor would never allow that, you're going to get sick". Really? I never looked better in my life, my sugar is fine, I have no headaches and Cornell is happy.

So who is correct here?

All you professionals out there, jump in and give opinions.

Love ya, Melody