As a former coffee addict, I now restrict myself to one or two mugs of very strong coffee a day but can’t say I have noted a raised BP as a result. I haven’t avoided coffee or tea before my medical.
I had my Class 2 EASA medical 4 days ago.
I have taken blood pressure medication for probably as long as I have been flying (30 years).
My experience of AMEs is that properly controlled BP isn’t / shouldn’t be a concern.
My AME is a great chap and I treat the medical as an opportunity to get another opinion on my health. At this medical, I did ask if I should take a higher dose of BP meds to lower my BP into the 110 to 120 range (currently just over 120 when resting at home). The answer was no unless I was monitored for my BP over a 24 hour period to make sure that my BP didn’t dip too low at night as low BP is not good.
If you are home monitoring your BP (as I guess everyone is if they have noticed an increase after drinking coffee) and it is a bit high, far better to get it treated than fudge the reading for your medical.
I’ve done several runs of this and find that weak coffee increases the upper by up to 10 and the lower by up to 7 points, and this lasts an hour or two.
I came across this thread while doing some admin and thought that this video might be of interest to the typical private pilot demographic 
Thanks Peter, tough to give up olive oil, fish, fowl, dairy, meat and coffee. Thank Heavens I like beets, spinach, arugula, lentils and balsamic vinegar! I didn’t watch it all, but it seems like a glass of wine is okay (unless I missed that ban).
Having watched it, it seems to be somewhat in contract with the “Mediterranean diet” where olive oil is important. But according to Dr Esselstyn it disrupts the “removing stickiness” process.
I’m sure he’s 100% correct, but the problem that I see is that there isn’t much left apart from eating kale and salads covered in balsamic vinegar. That’s pretty tough to follow. But I suppose it’s a case of the earlier and more you follow his advice, the less strict you need to be. He admits as much in his questions at the end. If you don’t already have problems he says that plant based food six times a day isn’t necessary, and 3 or 4 might be enough.
It has been said that living on a diat like that does not actually prolong life, it only makes it feel longer.
If one now actually lives longer, as his evidence seems to suggest, that somehow makes it worse, doesn’t it?
Joking aside – what i found interesting is that atherosclerosis is an – at least somewhat – reversible disease. The link to diet has been obvious for ages…
Yes, Dr Esselstyn’s diet was developed to help people who were already at death’s door, and he had great results which have now been proven time and again. There’s no real argument that heart disease is fully preventable with a low-fat plant based diet, and that almost all of us brought up on a Western diet have got it to some degree. I guess everyone just has to decide how much they want to protect themselves and how far to go with the diet. The studies I’ve seen have shown a Med diet offering about a 70% reduction in risk and for many that might be fine. I have recently started following the slightly less strict diet of Dr Greger, which is still plant based with no added oils, sugar etc, but does allow nuts, seeds, avocados in moderation (it’s designed to prevent all disease not specifically cardiovascular). I don’t find it at all difficult and never feel deprived or hungry. In fact when I occasionally think I’ll give myself a ‘treat’ and have whatever I like when I’m out somewhere, I find I just don’t want to put any of the sugary, fatty rubbish in my mouth. Once you know what it’s doing to you you can’t forget it. If anyone’s interested Dr Greger does wonderful very short videos on all sorts of health and nutrition subjects, all backed up with thorough reviews of research.
Food is always a difficult topic, because people are extremely attached to theirs (it is a huge part of life for most, especially if you socialise around food… going “healthy” is rarely going to be appreciated at a dinner party) and most people who have heart issues and have had some surgical procedure (bypass or a stent) just treat it as a plumbing repair, go on statins, beta blockers, aspirin, anti platelet, etc and eat and smoke like they did before. Then they are back for another op a few years later… still in denial, saying heart disease is 99.9% genetic etc.
A guy working next door to me was seen after a bypass op standing outside the hospital entrance a few days after the op, holding an IV drip in one hand and a fag in the other. The surgeons must despair, having spent 5 figures fixing him… OK; an extreme example but there is a whole spectrum.
You see this if you are a nutritionist. You get someone who is 1.5m and 90kg but their food diary (a list of everything eaten each day for a week) is immaculate – obviously nonsense. Gradually it emerges that “occassional wine” = two 250ml glasses each day, “occassional sweet” = a cake slice each day. The client then says “my marriage is in trouble, and you are trying to deny me the only pleasure I have in my life!”. Also so many people just have very busy lives, often on the road (sales etc) so they have little choice but to eat junk garage food – or quit the job. I work near a garage and see this all day. The “food advice” job is thus impossible because eating junk food is so often wrapped up in issues no external person can solve.
Dr Esselstyn’s diet is quite difficult because he rules out nuts and some other stuff. Not just to eat but to prepare the food which looks OK. But if you are on your last legs you have to do this. If you want to prevent heart disease progressing and maybe reverse existing deposits, then one doesn’t have to be so strict, and this is what I am on. Veg can be really tasty Cutting out dairy and meat was no big deal, and one can eat “anything” occassionally – say once a month – if one “has to”, say at a party or a wedding. I went to one today and ate whatever…
The medical profession IME completely disregards any possibility of reversing deposits, which is a huge dis-service. But here in the UK the health service is free (free if you are OK with long waiting, in most cases) and people don’t value free stuff. They get fixed up and they revert to old habits. It’s funny that this work has been done in the USA which at the same time rules the world when it comes to crap food
Here is a fun test:
The CAA says you need an EGG every two years for a class 2 if you are 50 or over
MED.B.010 Cardiovascular System
(a) Examination
(1) A standard 12-lead resting electrocardiogram (ECG) and report shall be completed on clinical indication, and:
(i) for a class 1 medical certificate, at the examination for the first issue of a medical certificate, then every 5 years until age 30, every 2 years until age 40, annually until age 50, and at all revalidation or renewal examinations thereafter;
(ii) for a class 2 medical certificate, at the first examination after age 40 and then every 2 years after age 50.
Oops! Only just spotted this thread began a long time ago – suspect my input about ECG is no longer relevant!!!
