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The breakfast that lowered my blood pressure

One small change helped lower my elevated blood pressure by 15 points

Tim Cigelske
4 min readJan 3, 2025
Photo by CDC on Unsplash

For as long as I can remember, I had elevated blood pressure throughout my 30s. Every time I had a check-up my systolic (top number) reading was in the 130s.

This was despite what I considered a healthy lifestyle. I ran marathons. I ate relatively healthy. I had a busy lifestyle with work and family, but not what I considered high stress. As someone who wrote about craft beer, I did indulge in higher ABV beers, but I also gave up beer from time to time.

According to the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, here’s what different top number (systolic) and bottom number (diastolic) means:

  • Below 120 and below 80 | Normal blood pressure
  • 120 to 129 and below 80 | Elevated blood pressure
  • 130 to 139 or 80 to 89 | Stage 1 hypertension
  • 140 or higher or 90 or higher | Stage 2 hypertension

My elevated blood pressure put me in Stage 1 hypertension, and nothing I was doing with diet or lifestyle seemed to change my status.

After Covid, I became more interested in understanding what I ate and how it affected me. I read a lot of Dr. Michael

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Tim Cigelske
Tim Cigelske

Written by Tim Cigelske

Educator. Podcast addict. Wrote a book about creativity: http://bit.ly/thecreativejourney

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