HBP

[stevencarr]

Recently I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Should I give up chess?

[Mick Norris]

No, I didn't you just need to follow doctor's advice

[LawrenceCooper]

Keeping off the forum may also help

[Mick Norris]

Keeping off the forum may also help

[Kevin Thurlow]

I suffered a stroke some years ago and when I got out of hospital I asked my doctor if it would damage me to play chess. I knew the brain still wasn't working very well, and didn't want another stroke. He gave the wonderful reply, "It will probably damage your rating!" So I actually played for fun for a couple of years, not taking it seriously and not worrying about results too much, until normality returned and I got really cross that I was losing a game, concentrated hard and saved it. I didn't die, so I started trying a bit harder thereafter.

[stevencarr]

I suffered a stroke some years ago and when I got out of hospital I asked my doctor if it would damage me to play chess. I knew the brain still wasn't working very well, and didn't want another stroke. He gave the wonderful reply, "It will probably damage your rating!" So I actually played for fun for a couple of years, not taking it seriously and not worrying about results too much, until normality returned and I got really cross that I was losing a game, concentrated hard and saved it. I didn't die, so I started trying a bit harder thereafter.

Thanks. I think I will not worry about results.

After all, I have hit 200+ once already, and it will be hard for me to get better than that anyway.

[David Gilbert]

There are various known lifestyle factors associated with high blood pressure, including smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise, being overweight and low levels of potassium. But most important is probably too much salt. Stress can also cause persistently high blood pressure. There's no evidence I'm aware of directly linking high blood pressure and chess, but as an interested participant in the Whitehall II study, probably the only longitudinal study of its type in the world, it found that blood pressure is greater in people with low job control compared with those with high job control, and maybe that can be extrapolated to winning games (in control) and losing games (not in control).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15097230

But before giving up chess, reduce your intake of salt, eat fruit, try to lose weight, cut out the fags, take more exercise, trim your alcohol consumption and maybe change your job! So generally make yourself miserable!

Oh, and take your pills! It’s reckoned that around half of all people diagnosed with high blood pressure go missing from their doctor's care before a year is out, and of the rest half don't take their medicines. Personally I use an Angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). There appears to be evidence that these can lower the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. I used to swallow a daily angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, and there’s some evidence these are reno-protective, but I had to give them up after developing an ACE inhibitor cough, which is common and so irritating that it could have caused me to give up chess!

[stevencarr]

Thanks for the advice.

[Kevin O'Rourke]

. don't play any gambits
. Castle the same side as your opponant

[Michael Farthing]

I particularly like Kevin's advice there to play an "ant" rather than an "ent" - a lot less intimidating.

[Stewart Reuben]

I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure in about 1995. Later I started taking pills. Ramipril also caused me to cough incessantly, so I gave that one up. 1999 I had angioplasty. 2002 I had a heart attack and a stroke the same year. These things are not the end of the world. I had a defibrillator fitted in 2009.
Plenty of exercise is a major help.
Stress affects everybody differently. e.g. playing poker for thousands of pounds hardly ever caused me noticeable stress. I no longer play because I don't win and it costs money to play. But I find chess MORE stressful. Odd that. I may urinate 25 times in a game.
The language is confusing and may have caused you concern.
HBP is described as hypertension. Its relevance to stress is marginal.
Heart failure. All that means is that your heart doesn't work as well as it might. Bu we associate failure with failing in an exam.

There is little doubt that playing chess helps the elderly. Whether it does so better than bridge, soduku or golf,etc. is most unclear. Dr Jana Bellin believes it is better because you need more stamina to play chess. Similarly Dave Rumens believes playing chess helps teenagers do better at exams because of improving their stamina.

So continue doing what you enjoy, provided you don't smoke, drink alcohol to excess, take mind altering drugs, over-eat, or get too stress-out.

[John Upham]

I may urinate 25 times in a game.

Do you do this away from the board or do you have an on-board facility?

[Brian Towers]

Thank you, John, for asking the question that was on all our minds but we were too embarrassed to ask!