The books say we are prone to high BP. I, for one, have been on meds for it for 5 to 10 years and lately it has been creeping up anyway. Ron mentioned that some PWP get PD benefits from BP meds. I guess it is no wonder that wrestling with ourselves would drive it up, but mine started years before that stage. I wonder if it goes back to the emotional angle of PD. Suppressing anger, anxiety, etc all one's life could readily cause blood vessels to constrict and drive it up. And we know that stress makes the BBB leak - does extra pressure behind force toxins through even more?

So, high BP? Low? Don't know?

Myslf - high 160/115 under current meds.

My Blood pressure has always been low to normal. It is slightly higher now than it used to be, which means it is now normal without the low.

My cholesterol is over 200, with hdl swinging between 98 and 111.

My doctor asked me if I felt faint the last time I went, blood pressure so low. No problem so far.

paula

Although my cholesteral level is quite high, 253, my average blood pressure is quite low, average 90/60. My hdl is 65 so go figure.

Vicky

My blood pressure is about normal, 98 over 60. ALready we seem very scattered in our BP, not much evidence of high levels. Rick, I have not seen any mention of PWP having high BP, where did you see it?
The high BP drugs which have improved PWP are
1 , Hydralazine,
2 Captopril,
3 Tetrazosin
4 Ramipril
5 Burinex
The first 3 have been investigated by Purdue University, and have been shown to reverse cell death
See http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/259ED6.htm
Rick, You are right about high BP causng the BBB to leak, this has been reported by researchers.
Ron

My BP has always been low to normal; 100/70 to 95/65. At the blood bank, they sometimes ask me if I'm feeling well. They hate it when people faint

To echo what Ron said, I haven't read anywhere that Parkinson's patients tend towards high blood pressure. In fact, I've read that they sometimes have problems with orthostatic hypotension from the medications. Am I wrong?

Of course, as we all know, this disease does different things to different people, so who knows?

Marian

My BP has always been on the low side as well. Now with my PD meds, it's gotten even lower and the doctors made me buy a blood pressure monitor to keep track of it. (It was fun to play with for a day or so, but that novelty wore off pretty quickly!) The docs have said that if I start having trouble, they'll have to put me on something that raises my BP. More drugs? Ugh...

My blood pressure has ran on the high side for years. As luck would have it both high BP and high cholesteral are are family traits. Over the past year I have had problems with the BP wanting to go higher. Right now it's in check but a problem. 150/90 currently under medication.
Rick - do you have a source for BP being a PD problem?

That'll teach me to double check. There doesn't seem to be much to base my blatant and unequivocal statement on.

I did track down what had put the idea in my head though. And it seems to say what I repeated but there is not a lot prior. The question, however, is if we are going hypertensive at night would we know it if we were not checking it ourselves. My apologies.

1: Eur J Intern Med. 2006 Oct;17(6):417-20.

Characteristic findings on 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in a series
of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Ejaz AA, Sekhon IS, Munjal S.

Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Transplantation, University of Florida,
P. O. Box 100224, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Parkinson's disease frequently present with
orthostatic hypotension, prompting testing with 24-h ambulatory blood pressure
monitoring (ABPM). The aim of our study was to identify characteristic patterns
of blood pressure changes present on ABPM in a series of patients with
Parkinson's disease. METHOD: We retrospectively identified 13 patients with
Parkinson's disease who had undergone ABPM for evaluation of symptomatic
orthostatic hypotension. The ABPM tracings were analyzed for the presence or
absence of reversal of circadian pattern, postprandial hypotension,
noncompensatory heart rate variability, and average daytime and nocturnal blood
pressure values. RESULTS: Reversal of circadian rhythm was identified in 92.3%,
postprandial hypotension in 100% and nocturnal hypertension in 100% of the
cases. Some 61.5% of the patients exhibited daytime blood pressures in the
prehypertensive range, and 23% had blood pressures in the stage 1 hypertension
range per JNC 7 classification. CONCLUSION: The characteristic findings on 24-h
ABPM in this series of patients with Parkinson's disease were the presence of
reversal of circadian rhythm (93%), postprandial hypotension (100%) and
nocturnal hypertension (100%).

PMID: 16962949 [PubMed]

(Keeping in mind that this was a small study)

100% experienced postprandial (after eating isn't it?) drop in BP? Is this why I do best if I skip lunch? And is it tied to blood sugar response?

And if this circadian rhythm is "reversed", how are other such rhythms affected? Maybe it is just me, but it seemed that that finding was of greater importance than all the rest.