Most of the time I ride a Me-Mover to my doctor's office for my appointments. The Me-Mover gives me great aerobic workouts which relaxes me before the nurse takes my blood pressure.
There is no doubt exercise is beneficial in helping to control high blood pressure, no matter your age. Some people use age as a deciding factor in decisions to exercise. If you are able, with a doctor's approval, do it!
Exercise helps your body recover from trauma, surgeries, I'm just coming back from 2 procedures recently, and I can feel my body responding to exercise routines, even at 80.
People with "white coat syndrome" usually get more accurate blood pressure readings at home as opposed to medical environments.
As a young man, I had to walk around my ship to calm down before the medic would release me from active duty because of my temporary high blood pressure.. This same problem has affected me all of my life, my anticipation of blood pressure examinations makes my BP rise most of the time, but lately has calmed down.
Mind over matter, same as your mind bluffing your gody during anxiety attacks.
@Moverme
I am sure I have "white coat syndrome" and take my blood pressure daily at home. I cannot convince my doctors to rely on my at home pressure reading.
I have two monitors - a British Kinetik (bought several years ago) and an Omron.
Checked readings between them and they agree within a couple of points.
A couple of points. Blood pressure varies naturally between day and night, active or resting, summer and winter. Also, for some, including me, the BP increases because I am at the doctor's surgery - the well known white coat syndrome.
I would suggest that the best way to monitor your health is to choose the same time of day, preferably before a meal and when you have been inactive for twenty minutes. Then look at any trends over time. I would also suggest that quite large changes within the same day don't mean much.
1
What is the uncertainty of the average final BP for each subgroup?
Each subgroup was only 330 people, and the difference between the final BP values is small (140, 137, 136).
What is the uncertainty of the average BP for each subgroup? Each subgroup was only 330 people.
Yes! I knew I was right! During menopause in 2008 I was prescribed water pills for my sometimes- almost-not quite-but could become- borderline high blood pressure. Some days on the meds my blood pressure would drop so much that I felt faint and I had a bad spell out walking my dog one day. Most of the time I was lethargic. Last year I said "enough!" I got a really good BP cuff and I use it every morning. If I am at 124/75 after I get up, I take half a water pill. If I'm 115/65 in the morning or better, I take nothing. I finally feel like I'm on an even keel and made sure my GP knows what I'm up to. She supports my decision and is happy to prescribe less meds. My monitor records 2 years of readings, in case she ever wants to check for herself.
4
My mother started using a blood pressure measuring cuff when they were fairly new, at least 25 years ago. (Her problem was very low blood pressure.) The first ones were not very accurate. Sometime around 2000 she got an Eckerd cuff which consistently closely matched near-simultaneous readings by the independent living nurse using an inflated bicep band and stethescope. My take on it, reinforced by some chats with GPs and their nurses, is that her experience was the norm. Indeed the first attempts at the cuffs were not reliable but the generation that is out there now can be trusted. (I know it is an Eckerd because I just picked it up and opened the case to check that out.)
Many people suffer from white coat symptom where their BP is higher when visiting a doctor. I imagine that is the case with this study and if the control also measured their own BP between doctor visits it would be the same as the other self measuring groups.
9
Monitoring my own blood pressure has proven to me that I have to stick to a low sodium diet. Those numbers rise when I indulge.
9
I'm amazed that any one ever gets a correct blood pressure reading in a doctor's office. I've read that the patient should be sitting, back supported, feet comfortably on the floor, quietly for 5 minutes beforehand, then the pressure taken on an arm resting on a support at about heart level while also sitting quietly -- i.e., no talking. I've rarely had that experience. Though I did have a doctor retake my blood pressure while following more of the guidelines after a technician took it initially -- the only guideline she followed was that I was actually sitting -- and the difference was at least 10 points lower for the upper number (I can't recall the difference for the lower number).
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But don’t you think it’s likely that the GP knows that and makes mental allowances? If you do, after all, wouldn’t he/she?
At the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL they always had me lie down in a quiet room for five minutes before taking my blood pressure. It was always nicely lower when they did that, then at my regular doctors' offices.
My wife and I both take measurements 1-2 times a day. The automated BP measurement done via “oscillometry,” tends to be more accurate than the traditional cuff and stethoscope method used by MDs'.
While the basic "sensor" technology is common to all oscillometric devices, the algorithms used to calculate the BP varies from brand to brand, so your measurements may have a "bias", positive or negative.
BP can vary widely from day to day, based on salt intake, alcohol intake, and most of all, hours and quality of sleep. The decision to take anti-hypertensive drugs or change dosage or formulary (alpha vs beta blockers, etc) is a diagnostic challenge. Keeping a daily record helps to find the right dosage, and more importantly know when you are under stress, and need to modify your routine (if you can).
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@OSS Architect
I bought the same oscillometric blood pressure monitor that my doctor's office uses and my blood pressure at home is 15 to 20 systolic points lower than it is at the doctor's office.
Taking one's BP one a day or even once a week would be a nuisance unless at documented risk. But taking it every few weeks two or three times during the day is worthwhile and easy with today's easy to use BP measuring devices. As for having it taken at the doctor's office, that's a complete waste for me because it's always much higher there in an artificial environment. The key takeaway is that if experience high BP on a regular basis, take steps to reduce it to reasonable levels. But don't let the "perfect" rule out the good, either. You could drive yourself nuts trying to meet some "ideal."
5
I was beginning to have high blood pressure issues on May 18th, 2017. When my doctor increased my meds a second time, I decided to take things seriously. With a heart attack, I would either die, or not. But a stroke would be a whole different story I wanted to avoid. It was my good fortune I found Mary’s blood pressure treatment story http://besthealthideas.com/how-i-cured-mary-hypertension It is a quick read and gives very simple explanations for what is needed to drop your BP. I am amazed at how easy it was to do the program and how quickly I got results. In just two weeks I got my BP to slightly below normal and even lost a few pounds. In a follow-up visit my doctor reduced my meds and when I report the latest data, she will probably reduce my meds even further. The truth is we can get off the drugs and help myself by trying natural methods..
2
The government should give a monitor to everyone who wants one.
3
So good ways. I was beginning to have high blood pressure issues on May 18th, 2017. When my doctor increased my meds a second time, I decided to take things seriously. With a heart attack, I would either die, or not. But a stroke would be a whole different story I wanted to avoid. It was my good fortune I found Mary’s blood pressure treatment story http://besthealthideas.com/how-i-cured-mary-hypertension It is a quick read and gives very simple explanations for what is needed to drop your BP. I am amazed at how easy it was to do the program and how quickly I got results. In just two weeks I got my BP to slightly below normal and even lost a few pounds. In a follow-up visit my doctor reduced my meds and when I report the latest data, she will probably reduce my meds even further. The truth is we can get off the drugs and help myself by trying natural methods
When I first read some biographical material about President Franklin Roosevelt, I was surprised to find that his blood pressure reading on D-Day June 4, 1944, when the US invaded Europe, was 237 over 150 and he maintained that for nearly another year before passing in April 1945. Today if a doctor saw such a reading in his office he wouldn't call the Emergency Room, he would call an undertaker. My point being that are the current blood pressure goals realistic? Is it possible that the aging body will adjust to our lazier life style by raising our blood pressure as we lower our activity rate so that blood will still be getting to the brain and the heart on time to prevent such as strokes and "heart attacks"? And by medically lowering blood pressure are we not going against nature? Consider President Roosevelt and D-Day.
3
A bit of medical and historical knowledge is needed here. After FDR's death, President Truman gave federal support for heart disease research. Subsequently, the Framingham Studies identified a cluster of risk factors for heart disease, among which was HTN. In the late 1950's the first anti-hypertensive agent became available. The efficacy of HTN meds was established by a famous VA study; this study was terminated early because the subjects assigned to receive no treatment were early found to be dying at much higher rates than the treated subjects. The study was concluded and published in 1971; only some 47 years ago.
I have told my patients, who refuse or neglect their HTN meds, about how a mighty US president who died for lack of meds that we now take for granted, thinking they were always available. And I think of how FDR was so ill when at Yalta and the momentous political consequences of his terminal months.
Yes, life style e.g. sedentary habits, obesity affect blood pressure. But, for many patients, medications are also needed. That is, if one desires to avoid preventable disability/death.
For more, the web will lead you to a very interesting timeline of HTN by the National Institutes of Health.
Salud!
3
I have a home monitor that always produces drastically lower numbers than what I see in the doctor's office (and I see a doctor every three months for a chronic condition so have it checked regularly there). I actually believe the home monitor numbers are artificially low -- because the monitor isn't accurate -- and the doctor's office numbers are artificially high. Why high? Because the nurse in the doctor's office always checks my numbers after I've chased her down a long hallway at a trot and while she's actively questioning me about why I'm in to see the doctor today. That seems to be the norm in most busy GP offices and in some specialists' offices. So doctors' offices, in general, really aren't much better at getting accurate numbers than the home monitors. My cardiologist, on the other hand, has his staff trained to check pressure after I've been sitting still for a few minutes. They check it in both arms and tell me to be quiet while they're doing it. That's the proper way to do it.
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Another way to control blood pressure ‘rushes’; never buy anything from a guy who’s out of breath.
3
All you have to do to understand the imprecision of digital do-it-yourself BP monitors is to read the reviews of the Omron (the leading US manaufacturer of such items) consumer line in Amazon. From those it seems that there is little reliability no matter whether the cheapest or the most expensive models. One clever entrepreneur has even developed a device that tracks the (expected) error in thse monitors. It seems to me that learning yourself (or having a spouse or friend learn) to take your blood pressure with a sphygmomanometer and stethescope may be the most reliable process.
3
Odd conclusion when the home BP monitors basically got the same readings as the monitors in the doctor's office, for over a thousand people. Also, Consumer's Reports rates some home BP monitors as very accurate.
12
When I got my Omron monitor, I brought it along with me when I had my physical. After the doctor took my BP with a sphycmomanometer, he took it again with my device. The numbers were close enough to not be concerned that what I was getting at home was different then in the office.
16
This was my experience too. A good Doctor will take your BP measurement at least twice. Use your automated device the same way. I take three measurements each time, and they do vary.
I find that I can easily change my BP +/- 10 points by changing how I sit or tightening my diaphragm muscles. There is no reason to assume a priori that your BP is that stable; which is why so many people here seem to distrust their machines.
Also, Omron and other machines come with one cuff. Cuff size is critical. There are 3 standard sizes, and if you do not have the correct size for you, the measurements will be consistently "off".
3
Pretty sloppy conclusion from Dr. McManus. This study is (obviously) not blinded, and does not have a patient-oriented outcome (in other words, they did not measure reduction in stroke or coronary artery disease, they just assumed it).
This study is a starting place, nothing more.
8
Hmm. Can’t say without seeing the data but 136,137 mm. Hg vs. 140 doeS not seem to be statistically significant depending on the size of the sample. I wonder what the margin of error was? I can also add that I tried several at home blood pressure machines myself and took them to the doctor at the time of my exams. None of them, even the ones rated best were close to the numbers the doctor got himself at the same time.
7
Agreed Warren. When I developed hi blood pressure almost 15 yrs ago, I bought a home kit and the readings were all over the place dispute being a name brand.
Some of my friends tell me the same thing when they take their BP in a drug store.
I now only take my pressure in a doctor's office a few times a yr and with meds have not had any issues.
If the home kits work for you, more power to you.
2
Thank you for saying this! I get variations of 3 or 4 mm Hg just measuring my own blood pressure several times with the same machine. This article means nothing.