Just looking for a little info on my health. 15, female, high blood pressure and diet questions? -

Im 15 and female. Im 5 foot 2 or 3 inches. I weigh 110 pounds. I was told at school the other day by my nurse, that I had high blood pressure after she took my blood pressure. I read up a little on this and found: quot;Primary hypertension (also known as essential hypertension) in children is the label given to high blood pressure when there is no underlying illness or disease that can be identified as the cause. There are several potential causes for primary hypertension in both children and adults. If a child consumes a diet that is high in salt or eats too many foods high in fat, hypertension can develop. Children with abnormally high levels of triglycerides or cholesterol are at risk for hypertension in childhood or adolescence. The same is true for children and adolescents who are overweight and live too sedentary of a lifestyle. If a child has a parent with a history of high blood pressure, he or she might inherit the condition.quot; This is the only answer I can find. Im not taking any birth control or medicine, so that cant be the reason my blood pressure has been high. Although Im not overweight, infact my doctor has told me not to lose anymore weight, i do eat a lot of foods that are high in fat. I eat 3-4 cookies a day or some other high in fat dessert. (arn t all good deserts high in fat?) And I havnt had a very good diet for a year or so now. I eat one meal a day usually between 4 and 6pm. Usually its pizza, macamp;cheese, veggie burger, veggie dog, or some other quot;fake meatquot; meal since I am a vegatarian. Im suppose to be taking multi-vitamins, but I never remember. and go 2-3 weeks between taking one. I ve also experienced shortness of breath lately. I can hardly walk a couple yards without getting really out of breath and feeling dizzy and weak. I have to go up 3 flights of stairs at school during the day. I used to have no problem with this, but now I can hardly do it. Im in shape, but just have had problems with physical exercise lately because as said, i keep experiencing shortness of breath. --- So... what should I do? And is there something wrong with me?

First of all, every food that you mentioned that you eat for dinner is loaded with sodium and too much can cause hypertension, even in a person who is not over weight. Secondly, you need to be eating at least 3 meals a day, but preferably, you should be eating 3 small meals a day and 3 snacks in between meals. This will keep your body from thinking that it needs to go into starvation mode and will also keep your blood sugar levels consistent throughout the day. If your school nurse said that your blood pressure was high, you should go see your family doctor and have them take your blood pressure. This one instance of hypertension could have been a fluke or it could have been taken incorrectly since this does happen from time to time. If your BP is still high when you see your family doctor you should ask for a referral to a pediatric cardiologist and have them do some tests to see if there is something else in your body that could be causing the problems with the high blood pressure. There are medications that can be taken to keep your blood pressure within normal limits which means that it should be no higher than 120/80 and no lower than 100/70. This is the range that is considered optimal and healthy for all adults and teenagers. Regarding the exercise, it could be that you are experiencing shortness of breath because your heart rate is too fast. When your heart rate gets to a certain speed it can cause you to feel winded and this is your body s way of letting you know that you are pushing your heart too hard. When walking up a couple flights of stairs your HR should not be above 110 beats per minute. This is also something that you should discuss with your family doctor and the cardiologist. Again, there are medications that can be used to bring the heart rate down to normal levels which is no higher than about 85 beats per minute when seated and no lower than 60 beats per minute. There are some tests that can be run to determine if you are having a more complex problem or if you are just experiencing hypertension and a fast heart beat (fast heart rate is called Tachycardia by doctors). To be on the safe side, speak with your parents and make an appointment with your doctor to get checked out. It can t hurt anything, but you could cause yourself to become very ill if you do not get it looked at by the doctor. Good luck and I hope that you feel better soon.

..change your lifestyle.. cut down on the fatty stuffs and take more vegetables and also the salts and sugars.. they are really the mean ones..