2 ms·

I had a one off blood pressure tests a few years ago that was outrageous 140 over something and completely unusual for me (which previously were like 110). The

I had a one off blood pressure tests a few years ago that was outrageous 140 over something and completely unusual for me (which previously were like 110). The nurse was like, lets see what happens with a bigger cuff, and the reading from the automated machine was suddenly like 120 over something, and she was like, shrug you should watch it. So I picked up a mid-range automatic bp cuff, and started to measure it more regularly. The numbers were all over the place and completely unrepeatable unless I maintained exactly the same position/breathing/etc. I can literally swing my BP by 30+ mmHg, by re-positioning my body, drinking a cup of coffee, etc, all while officially still maintaining proper technique for measuring it. And yes, moving up a cuff size also tends to remove a ~5mmHg from my measurement. I could write a book about how to get any BP you want out of the machine. Its the same with weight, I can shift my weight +-10% by eating a bowl of salty popcorn drinking a few 64oz cups of ice tea, then eating a large meal. Then I can go for a 3 hour bike ride, use the toilet and drop it all back off. So, its sort of surprises me the fine grained aspect of DR's always measuring your BP/Weight, neither of which really mean anything until they get into the extreem ranges, and in the weight case you can get a better feel for it just by looking at someone...

riahi 8y ago
Where I trained, this is why we don’t diagnose someone as hypertensive unless there are three separate elevated blood pressure measurements on three different clinic visits. We would schedule people for Nurse only BP checks to help establish the pattern. This statistical anbiguity is why the medical community as a whole is often sceptical of the Direct to consumer DNA testing and SNP analysis. They report data in a convincing way which is statistically misleading and in no way plainly reveals what is within measurement error.

riahi 8y ago

Where I trained, this is why we don’t diagnose someone as hypertensive unless there are three separate elevated blood pressure measurements on three different clinic visits. We would schedule people for Nurse only BP checks to help establish the pattern. This statistical anbiguity is why the medical community as a whole is often sceptical of the Direct to consumer DNA testing and SNP analysis. They report data in a convincing way which is statistically misleading and in no way plainly reveals what is within measurement error.