- Joined
- Feb 26, 2016
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- 1,289
Probably heard a similar story.
Old friend of the family. 90 years old female. Italian, Napoletani. Lived in the Marina District in SF. 1st floor, garage. 2nd. floor, living, 3rd floor, bedrooms. 4th floor, small glass enclosed patio. Nice. Lived there ~40 years. Never owned a clothes dryer. Would walk from the garage up to the patio regularly to line dry her clothes. 90 years old. She walked up hill (both ways ) to her church in Cow Hollow every morning. Used to take her 30 minutes. When I saw her last it took her 45 minutes. She was sad but accepted it.
Bp was 80 / 90 over something. I knew, she knew it was low according to the current guidelines.
Healthy as could be. Doc put her on meds to get her bp up. She always felt and looked great. Sharp as a tack.
Then she died
Don’t know what it all means, just thought I would share.
Exercise is the #1 medicine, especially for prevention of basically all illness. Every person i know or have seen make it close or past 100 years of age is always relatively lean. Never obese. Being lean is also medicine.
@buck
A major reason why BP goes up with age is atherosclerosis ; calcification of the arteries. Imagine the water pressure inside a soft, elastic rubber hose, then imagine the same water going through a hard narrow plastic hose. Elastic and pliable arteries = lower blood pressure / Narrow and hard arteries covered in plaque = higher BP . There are other physiological reasons for high BP, but atherosclerosis is the beginning of the end for the cardiovascular system. That's when BP goes up and risk of heart attack, stroke, embolism (blood clots) starts to go up. With a weak heart from sedentary lifestyle, you further compound the risk of cardiovascular illness and events.