Dear XXXXXX,
Thanks for writing in.
I am a qualified and certified cardiologist and I read your mail with diligence.
Undoubtedly your job and home situation are conducive to stress. It is not stress (which is universal) it is how we react to it what matters. You have high BP which I call stress in action and in my opinion you have to see a local doctor to:
a). Rule out any primary cause of this Hypertension by physical examination & tests.
b). Prescribe a medicine as BP medicines are prescription medicine. and lastly
c). Follow you up. Including filling in the unfilled information about risk factors for coronary artery disease. Twenty nine is just the right age to start acting on prevention so that you do not have heart disease later in life. So let us start with risk factors.
It is not unusual for Indians to be detected with the problems which we call risk factors at this age. These are risk factors for coronary artery disease. If drug + diet + exercise therapy is done now your quality of life in next 40 years can be much better. Let us see with available information how your risk profile looks like and what needs to done.

At any age, following is the list of risk factors for future development of Coronary Artery Disease. Let me enumerate and you can place yourself the risk you are carrying ('*' means you have the risk factor, '+/-' means I do not know and about others you know better):-

A: MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS
Diabetes +/-
Hypertension*
Smoking+/-
Stress*
Obesity and Sedentary Life Style* but you are working on it by bringing it down.
High Bad Cholesterol and Lipid Component * Triglycerides alone is a risk factor
Total Cholesterol above 190 mg%, LDL above 130 mg%, VLDL above 40 mg%,
Triglycerides above 150 mg%, Apolipoprotein B above reference value
Low Good Cholesterol and Lipid Component: +/- (I do not have values of HDL)
Apolipoprotein a below reference range for the lab and
HDL below 40 mg% for man & and 50 mg% for woman
B: NON MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS
Family History 0f Coronary Heart Disease +/-
Increasing age*
Being a Man (as opposed to women) till the age 45*

From the list, above you have some risk factors. Hypertension, Stress, Obesity high triglycerides, being a man and increasing age has been identified. Therefore, I will strongly recommend consulting your doctor; he may complete the list as well do the EKG / TMT to find out target organ damage due to hypertension.
It is never too late to change. With your weight everything you do will have to be under supervision. It need not be cardiologist but your primary doctor can guide your way back to health - I am happy to read that. You may need drugs and he/she (or ask the dietitian) to advise you about diet low in calories and cholesterol, advise you on quantum of exercise. You ought to keep your weight under control for you do not want other attack. If you like non vegetarian you cannot take red meat but there is no bar (in taking certainly quantity had to be less) on egg white, roasted chicken and roasted fish.
Exercise: Brisk walk at the speed of 5 KM/Hr for 40 minutes per day every day is enough aerobic exercise you need for keeping your heart healthy.
Now about stress. Please do this yogic exercise for ten minutes twice a day. will write about the progressive muscular relaxation which is used for non pharmacological treatment of blood pressure. This has opposite effect to heavy isometric exercise. Additionally, this is a great stress buster. It is called Savasana: corpse pose if literally translated from ancient Sanskrit Texts. It is the version which you can find on the internet and I quite agree that transliteration has been good. I quote:
"No yoga session is complete without the final pose – Savasana. The body needs this time to understand the new information it has received through practicing yoga. Even though Savasana is a resting pose, it’s not the same a sleeping! You should stay present and aware during the five to ten minute duration of final relaxation.

Instructions:

1. Come to lie down on the back.

2. Let the feet fall out to either side.

3. Bring the arms alongside the body, but slightly separated from the body, and turn the palms to face upwards.

4. Relax the whole body, including the face. Let the body feel heavy.

5. Let the breath occur naturally.

6. To come out, first begin to the deepen the breath. Then move the fingers and toes, awakening the body.

7. Bring the knees into the chest and roll over to one side, keep the eyes closed.

8. Slowly bring yourself back up into a sitting position.

Here are some ideas on ways to use props during savasana to make this pose more comfortable and relaxing XXXXXXX

If there is any further query I will be most happy to answer asap. It is a pleasure interacting with you. Yes, it is better to ask few friendly questions from a cardiologist then meeting him/her in person as a patient. We shall see that never happens. So, Cheer up.
With Best Wishes.

Dr Anil Grover,
Cardiologist
M.B.;B.S, M.D. (Internal Medicine) D.M.(Cardiology)
http://www/ WWW.WWWW.WW

---