How To Lower Blood Pressure Before DOT Physical

Potassium counter acts sodium. Garlic, fish oil. Only drink water. Meditate before hand. Just deep breathing.

This topic gets a lot of views so I wanted to let everyone know we also have some great resources in our trucker's wiki:

Blood Pressure Requirements For The DOT Physical

Hypertension (high blood pressure) Regulations and Tips For Lowering Your Blood Pressure Before The DOT Physical

A favorite tip midwives tell pregnant women whose blood pressure is rising is to eat celery every day. Four stalks or so. Or at least some about 30 minutes before measuring BP. Celery contains certain chemicals that dilate the blood vessels allowing more blood to pass through easier. And it is a natural diuretic. Very similar to blood pressure medications.

Just wanted to share a few things that may help you lower bp for testing. Read about this for your self to. Olive leaf extract, natural ace inhibitor. Celery seed extract. Natural cortisol blocker. Lemon balm. Will calm your anxiety and realax blood vessels and help slow your heart rate. Magnesium relaxes blood vessels L-Arginine relaxes blood vessels L-theanine will also reduce your anxiety calming effect. I'm currently taking all twice a day. With pretty good results. I'v heard but never tried 20 oz of beet juice 2 hrs before test works also. But the other stuff above I have been trying for three weeks and my bp has been down to 115/72 sitting in my living room watching tv its normally 138/87 or abouts. What seems to make a big difference along with the olive leaf extract and celery seed extract twice daily, is the lemon balm but seem like the lemon balm can take two hours to work well. Also lemon balm you could build up a tolerance so three weeks on and one off then back on. But do your own home work I have been doing mine for years and this is what has been working for me just thought its my duty to pass on info that might help a fellow driver. Also could take up to two month for natural stuff to work so dont just try for a week or two and give up with the olive leaf and celery seed especially. After 2 month and nothing then probably not your stuff. Also a little cardio work out and this goes a long way. Good luck.

Another trick for lowering blood pressure before a test, is to take aspirin. Prescription blood pressure meds thin the blood, as does aspirin. I usually start putting aspirin in my system every 4 hours, starting 2 days before I am going to be tested. It always drops my BP quite a bit lower, than my prescription BP meds alone.

This can also be a good solution to help you pass your test, until you can get back in to see your doctor for a permanent solution to getting it below the threshold. I have talked to some guys who were stuck at the company terminal , and not allowed to drive, until they were retested and able to pass.

Dont drink caffeine a couple days before and be well hydrated and relax

Both my parents have high BP. When completing my last physical mine was on the upper end of "acceptable". I had dental work done recently & it was literally teetering on the border. I'm 32 years old, not overweight & have reduced my caffeine intake to a single 12oz Mt. Dew in the morning. Aside from that I drink water throughout the day.

That being said this is a legitimate concern for me so I'm keen to try the asprin advice. I could always pop some of my dads prescription BP meds, but I'm more interested in loweing my BP for the prolonged health benefits and (with gods grace) without the need of medication.

Of course it could just be genetics...but I'm still stocking up on bananas & looking deeply into my salt intake.

My BP was a good bit over the line when I went to take my physical, but a couple days before I took it I started taking cinnamon, garlic, and baby aspirin. That coupled with a little meditation during the fact and I came out 1 point below the limit

It's funny but my BP just happens to be a little goofy. I do have high BP without meds and I could stand to lose some weight but with basic meds it's usually around 125/65. You know how they say that both alcohol and or tobacco use will increase your BP? Thing is when I get home from a particularly stressful day I'll check it and it's pretty high, way above normal (in the 150/90 range even).

Now I can sit down, have a couple of drinks and within minutes it comes back down to normal. Heck, if I go out on the patio, fire up a cigar and have a couple of drinks it comes down even lower. Of course if I have more than two or three it climbs right back up again. I've checked it numerous times and it's always the same. My DR thinks I'm crazy but think about it, George Burns lived to be a 100. LOL!

That said, I have no intentions of taking a couple of shot before going in for my DOT physical. I'm just saying, your mileage may vary. LOL

The aspirin thing might work, I don't know but I'm not sure I would chance it without having some way to check your BP before and then say 30 - 60 minutes afterwards. I bought this little machine I can use at home from a company called LifeSource. I've taken my BP at the Dr's office a few times after they have done it there in the office and it's pretty accurate. It's battery operated and I think I paid around $50 for it.

JJ

I could always pop some of my dads prescription BP meds

That would result in a failed drug test if the prescription isn't in your name. It's going to show up on the test.