5 ms·

I got a new doctor recently and he agrees. He also told me to take by BP multiple times a day several days a week, for several weeks. To base high blood pressur

I got a new doctor recently and he agrees. He also told me to take by BP multiple times a day several days a week, for several weeks. To base high blood pressure on one reading at the doctors office every few months is won’t get you the statistical significance you need. And also to record if you drink coffee that day, if you exercised before a reading, slept well the night before, etc. BP can vary greatly from all those daily factors.

matheusmoreira 3y ago
> To base high blood pressure on one reading at the doctors office every few months is won’t get you the statistical significance you need. Depends. If it's high enough and there's other risk factors, it's pretty safe to immediately diagnose it as hypertension.
- lurking_swe 3y ago
  except blood pressure is ALWAYS measured incorrectly at a doctors office. So what’s the point? Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps? “Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test. Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins. During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level. The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt. Don't talk during the measurement.” source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-your-blood-pressure-correctly https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-... Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps? 100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    From your own link: > The exception to this rule is if you have a blood pressure reading of 180/110 mm Hg or higher. > A result this high usually calls for prompt treatment. That's what I meant by "high enough". A single 150 x 90 mmHg reading may be uncertain ground but you don't ignore 220 x 130 mmHg.
- sgtnoodle 3y ago
  A few years ago I randomly suffered from total heart block, and over a couple months my effective heart rate gradually slowed down from 80bpm to 20-30bpm. When I ended up in the hospital, they put in a pacemaker and my heart rate immediately shot up to 110bpm. I was monitored to-the-nines in the ICU for several more days, and my blood pressure was like 160/120. I had the worst "caffeine headache" of my life. One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me. My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    That's an extreme high stress situation though. No one sane would attribute the higher blood pressure to primary hypertension when there are secondary causes that explain it. There are even cases where lowering the blood pressure can lead to worse outcomes.
porknubbins 3y ago
But if those daily factors are happening all the time at some point isn’t that blood pressure measurement the one that matters? If I can get to normal bp by extreme efforts but spend most of my time in mild hypertension I might need to treat it somehow.
- sgtnoodle 3y ago
  Blood pressure varies throughout the day with activity and it's all normal. My understanding is it's only considered hypertension if your pressure is high even at rest. If you're chronically stressed out all the time, though, then yeah maybe you're at risk of a stroke?

matheusmoreira 3y ago

> To base high blood pressure on one reading at the doctors office every few months is won’t get you the statistical significance you need. Depends. If it's high enough and there's other risk factors, it's pretty safe to immediately diagnose it as hypertension.

lurking_swe 3y ago
except blood pressure is ALWAYS measured incorrectly at a doctors office. So what’s the point? Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps? “Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test. Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins. During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level. The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt. Don't talk during the measurement.” source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-your-blood-pressure-correctly https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-... Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps? 100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  From your own link: > The exception to this rule is if you have a blood pressure reading of 180/110 mm Hg or higher. > A result this high usually calls for prompt treatment. That's what I meant by "high enough". A single 150 x 90 mmHg reading may be uncertain ground but you don't ignore 220 x 130 mmHg.
sgtnoodle 3y ago
A few years ago I randomly suffered from total heart block, and over a couple months my effective heart rate gradually slowed down from 80bpm to 20-30bpm. When I ended up in the hospital, they put in a pacemaker and my heart rate immediately shot up to 110bpm. I was monitored to-the-nines in the ICU for several more days, and my blood pressure was like 160/120. I had the worst "caffeine headache" of my life. One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me. My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  That's an extreme high stress situation though. No one sane would attribute the higher blood pressure to primary hypertension when there are secondary causes that explain it. There are even cases where lowering the blood pressure can lead to worse outcomes.

porknubbins 3y ago

But if those daily factors are happening all the time at some point isn’t that blood pressure measurement the one that matters? If I can get to normal bp by extreme efforts but spend most of my time in mild hypertension I might need to treat it somehow.

sgtnoodle 3y ago
Blood pressure varies throughout the day with activity and it's all normal. My understanding is it's only considered hypertension if your pressure is high even at rest. If you're chronically stressed out all the time, though, then yeah maybe you're at risk of a stroke?