I’m to tell you all that after only not smoking again for 3 full days My BP is at a steady 130/85. I kept snuffing and snusing in moderation and my BP dropped like a stone. If this is not evidence that snuffing /snusing is so much less harmful then smoking then nothing is. Thanks again for all your stories and wise words, I truly appreciate them all!
I know this an old thread, but if anyone looks at it, I have another 2 cents to throw in. Oleuropein is the active ingredient in olive oil and olive leaf extract, and has been “proven” to help lower bp and a bunch of other benefits. You can get it as a liquid, or as a brownish green powder, looks sort of like the rustic snuff. Anyway, I’ve been taking it for a few weeks because I had read about it’s beneficial effects. The morning after I first took about 1/2 a teaspoon, my bp was so low I felt dizzy. Anyways, its worth investigating. Like some you, I am “older”, almost 60, I only use snuff, no smoking except my homegrown herb, but I worry about high bp, etc. And at times, I use a lot of snuff. I guess I probably use a lot of snuff…period. I certainly don’t want to drop dead, it would sad for my snuff collection to wasted. My girlfriend thinks its disgusting and would throw it out. My brother takes a micro sized pinch of any snuff I happen to be carrying, then sneezes for 10 min. Sorry for rambling and ranting off topic…
High BP is me operating at normal. good luck finding a vein. Not concerned; I know I am not normal, Have not been to a doctor since 1990. I check BP at the store and it is off the charts. The main thing is I have BP.
As @mrmanos said olive oil (cold pressed is best) and i’ll add a few : Raw garlic (one clove every day. Have it with cheese and crackers). Hawthorne berry tea (harvest the berries, dry them completely out and use them as you would tea). The Germans did a study a while back showing Hawthorne berries to be as effective or more than the current mainstream BP meds. I personally believe that what you eat is by far away the most important factor in good health assuming you get a bit of regular exercise. If your overweight, ditch the carbs and lose it. As much as i have been more guilty than most (drinking and smoking) i love the quote from the movie Animal house. “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hnwvWhbJw Plant a Hawthorne tree and get free meds for life. Maybe plant a willow tree as well for your asprin needs (leaves and bark salicylate-rich). P.s. Can you tell i hate big pharma?
@mrmanos “my girlfriend thinks its disgusting and would throw it out” my girlfriend used to think so too - until she finally tried one 
now she likes snuff very much.
A good mantra for this is “everyone is different”. Particularly with high blood pressure. There are actually at least several types of high blood pressure, with different types responding to different treatments. For example, people of African and East Asian ancestry tend to be much more sodium sensitive than caucasians, so they respond much better to diuretics and to a low-salt diet. As a caucasian with very high blood pressure (180/90, if untreated), I went from an averagely bad diet with a lot of salty food to a total vegetarian raw food diet for six weeks. And it didn’t budge my blood pressure one single point. So, I started swimming a mile a day, lost 20lbs, and stopped smoking. It went down a bit, but not enough. Now I take two different types of meds as well as a few supplements (particularly fish oil and CoQ10). I should take three types of meds, but the last one makes me a bit sexually dysfunctional, which is a price I’m not prepared to pay. So, with all that, I hover on 140/85, which is just on the border of what doctors call “controlled”. My doc says I should be happy, it’s already a very big reduction and improves my chances of not having a stroke or heart attack dramatically. He always tells me not to take any tobacco product for half an hour before testing, otherwise it will probably affect the reading. I bet he’s basing that on cigarettes, not snuff, but I do as he says anyway. The doc I see works in a stroke hospital. I don’t really care if I don’t live to be really old, but looking around at the people in the hospital, I sure as hell know that I don’t want to be incapacitated by a stroke. Something like half of all Americans who are diagnosed with HBP and prescribed medication never even bother to fill out the first scrip. Like I said, have a look in a stroke hospital if you want to know why I think that’s really dumb. It could change your life really dramatically really suddenly, and not in a good way.
mine’s 130/80 and my doctor put me on a low dose of lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor. I take it because, like JakartaBoy said, having a stroke doesn’t look like a great way to spend my last couple of decades.
may have said this one of the reasons smoking increases blood pressure is the carbon monoxide that binds to the hemoglobin in the blood making it less able to carry oxygen so the body needs to push the blood through faster increasing blood pressure.
mines 150/80-100. its been up to 160sys, but it depends on caffeine intake i reckon. doctors here wouldnt give me anything for it, because im younger (been that high since 17, im 20 now). it does really concern me, i just cant seem to lose weight no matter what i do with my diet.
HBP is all in the genes and the first symptom for many is the sudden crushing pain of a MI.
~120/80 here, dropped a couple points after I stopped smoking but not much. Then again I jog 2-3 times per week, been doing so since my mid-twenties, that may have something to do with it…
ive been steadily gaining weight for a couple of years, im about 280/300 pounds and a 38 waist. the weight is screwing my legs on the walk to work, i end up with calf/shin/knee pain after about 4 minutes. have to stand and stretch or rest them. i eat one/two meals a day, drink tea, snuff, snus, drink water, and eat controlled carbs and high protein when i can. im never over and usually under the calorie recommendation. ill occasionally treat, like yesterday i was knackered from work and couldnt have a whisky, so i took the edge off with a nice quiche and an energy drink.
i do consume a highish percentage of protein and do weight exercise. ive discovered i have a tendency to get cold/sweaty and pass out if i reduce my food intake much more and its usually rectified by having a little snack so i dont want to cut calories much. once i get my bike fixed ill be riding a lot but i think the impact from walking is whats causing my leg problems. if we are going for around the belly, id say its a 40/42 because thats what it got measured as round the belly, but all my trouser waist sizes are 36/38 and they go as far up as… other bits allow comfortably and i use a belt. i do apologise, but i wasnt quite thinking about waist size properly haha. i will measure my blood pressure again tomorrow morning and ill see what it is now i havent been smoking at all for awhile, getting back to thread haha.
losing weight is probably the only thing that will be effective in lowering bp, outside of medications or if you’re a heavy drinker cutting back on that. of course tobacco users are generally those with addictive personalities so trying to reduce calories enough to lose weight is going to be a challenge. i was always lean with low bp until i hit my 40’s and found myself at 215 with bp of 155/92, realised I either make changes or let things get worse. tried many approaches, only thing that worked for me was pure carnivore, no chance if I’m eating carbs that I’ll be able to voluntarily moderate their intake, but remove the ‘drug’ altogether and the addictive cycle is broken and after that it’s easy. dropped down to 168lbs, bp of 120/75 within 6 months, and tossing out the vegetables and potatoes and dining on platefuls of steaks is no sacrifice.
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Snuff doesn’t seem to rise my BP much, If I don’t do any snuff before it’s taken it’s 118/75 if I take a big hit of snuff a half an hour before it’s checked it tends to be 120/75 but I don’t smoke
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