punk rock housewife

Hearts don’t break/The division is innate

Yesterday night M and I cycled over to the Y to work out. He’s an inveterate jock; I’ve been known to dabble in martial arts, kick a ball around, and yell at the Sox game. Mostly I ride my bike. I’m trying to get rid of this tummy, while he’s trying to cement his already-uncanny resemblance to certain gladiators as he coasts up on his thirties. I therefore do about 80/20 cardio/weights, and he vice versa.

After our workouts I noticed him over at the blood pressure machine. He explained that his BP is usually a little on the high side, and sure enough, his systolic/diastolic reading landed him squarely in “hypertension” territory, per the monitor. This was probably not an accurate reading, since he’d just worked out, we agreed.

I have always had slightly lower-than-normal blood pressure, and, though I was still sweating and panting, my reading came out lower than the “normal” range on the monitor.

Here’s where it gets weird. I’m a pack-a-day smoker, prone to intense emotionality (and certifiably mentally ill), my diet’s not great, and I exercise only intermittently. M is infuriatingly calm, even when he’s furious, never smokes, and exercises frequently. His dead-animal intake is rather higher than mine, but this alone shouldn’t explain the discrepancy.

Are genetics solely accountable for variations in cardiovascular function? What about the role of emotional expression? I have had several outwardly calm, serene friends with significantly higher-than-normal blood pressure, and intensely emotive, “high-strung” and perceptibly stressed-out friends whose readings are low.

The obvious answer is that unexpressed emotional pressure = tension = high BP, and the converse is true, but I’m not sure that thesis holds water. Or blood. Any thoughts?