CDL Blood Pressure: Should a Truck Driver Worry About It?

Today, many people around the world deal with blood pressure problems. It has caused many truck drivers to fail their CDL. CDL stands for Commercial Driver's License, and every truck driver needs to have it to drive their vehicle for commercial purposes. That is why every trucker needs to have their blood pressure under 140/190, to get through their dot physical.

Dot Physical and its Relationship with CDL Blood Pressure

First, before talking about the link between a truck driver's blood pressure to his driving skills, lets know about Blood Pressure. In simple words, blood pressure is the measurement of the force applied by your heart to move blood around the body. Arteries get affected through it. Due to their lack of resistance to high blood pressure or lack of blood pressure in low blood pressure, it leads to kidney failure or damage to the lungs.

Blood pressure can cause sudden strokes or heart attacks. It is alarming because a person will not know about his condition until he suffers through them. Hence, because of this reason, the government has made a rule for every truck driver to go through Dot Physical. These tests can save truck drivers from dying in the middle of the highway when there will be no one to help them.

Requirements to Pass Dot Physical

During Dot's physical, the examiner checks the entire medical history of the truck driver. The main aspects of dot physical are remarks on driver's vision and blood pressure. They also take the driver's urine test to check if he is doing drugs or not. So, if your BP is high and you are thinking about lowering it through medication for the short term, then you will be caught. Moreover, an entire procedure takes place to ensure the truck driver is healthy enough to drive.

Anyhow, if a truck driver is not able to pass dot physical, he can apply for a second opinion with a new examiner. So, if you get a second chance, try to lower your blood pressure and be eligible for other requirements.

How to Decrease Your Blood Pressure for Dot Physical?

If you are a truck driver and your Dot physical is coming up, you should try these ways to reduce your blood pressure.

1. Doing Exercise: Everyone knows exercise increases blood flow into the body. Hence it strengthens your heart and provides it a hand in pumping blood easily.

2. Drinking More Water: To reduce your blood pressure, you will need to increase the amount of water you consume. Water diminishes sodium content (which plays the leading role in high blood pressure) in your body.

3. Decreasing Alcohol and Smoking: Although drinking does not have a significant impact on blood pressure. But its continuous use over the years can lead to hypertension. Secondly, smoking kicks in stress in your cardiovascular system, hence causing high blood pressure too.

4. Have a Regular Sleep Schedule: Sleeping regularly for 6 to 8 hours takes stress off your mind. The less stress there is, the lesser the blood pressure will be.

Eating Healthy Food: Eating healthy will reduce salt (sodium) in your food and stop hypertension. You will need to have some fruits and vegetables now and then. And if you have fast food, then try to have a salad with it, also drink lots of water.