High Blood Pressure

[Lissa]

Just wondering if anyone on here suffers from it, as I'm being monitored for it at the moment.

On the 28th December I toddled off to the doctors as I do every 12 weeks for my contraceptive jab. They check my blood pressure and pulse every time, and they've never been a problem. They were a bit high the time before last though, and this time before I knew what was going on, I was being given an ECG. Why on earth do they say,'just relax, it's nothing to worry about'. If anything is going to put your pulse and blood pressure up it's being whacked on a heart monitor!

Anyway, the upshot is, I'm now monitoring myself with a machine loaned to me by the surgery, but I don't really know if my results are good or bad. Seeing as the Org is the font of all knowledge, I was hoping someone might be able to give me some idea of what can cause high blood pressure, and what is considered 'high'. I'm pretty damned sure all this stressing about it can't be helping

If it's always been OK before, then it's probably a one-off high reading. A brisk walk before being tested can be enough to produce an unusually high reading.

I had my blood pressure tested before joining the company gym and it was high. However, my office is 7 minutes walk from the gym and I'd walked over there quite quickly. After resting a little while my blood pressure went down to normal.

I can't remember what 'normal' is though.

Try this Lissa,

There's a table showing normal, Pre-hypertension, Stage 1 High Blood and Stage 2 High Blood.

http://www.diovan.com/info/answers/n...73779010594661

[Luckypants]

what reading you getting? I generally have good blood pressure and mine is in the 110/70 - 120/80 range. The values are generally lower for ladies I think.

They will be monitoring it so that they can see if it is a trend or a bad one off, like suggested by wyrdness.

Stop stressing, get on the bike for a blast to relax you. (actually check your blood pressure in a spirited section - that would be interesting!)

[rictus01]

The popular misconception of 100 plus your age, is toted as the benchmark, however 12 yrs of taking them everday has shown that's rubbish.

Body weight, how active your are, diet, stress and natural biology (my wife is Philipino and has this problem)all play a part.

Personnally my blood pressure has always been between 118-122/ 70-80, if it's over 125 it normally shows the machine is crap, the automatic ones aren't anywhere as good as the old manual way.

as a rough guess 130ish sy/ 80 dy would be "normal" although the range between them is also of importants.

Cheers Mark.

[timwilky]

I went through a bad time a few years ago. Ended up vomiting blood. Went to my local A&E and when they took my blood pressure they went into panic mode. I ended up being admitted and monitored for 2 weeks. 3 days after I was admitted my BP hit 215/160.

3 times my endoscopy to establish what was causing the bleed was cancelled until they got my diastolic below 100. I now take Amlodopine 5mg and Atenolol 100mg. Co-incidently I got a letter from my GP requesting I attend a hypertension review today. When I checked the other day, I am currently 120/85. I measure my BP weekly, My sister works for the company that makes the monitors and she sent me the same model as they provide to the hospitals. Still not as accurate as an old fashioned mercury sphygmomanometer. but with no spill risk or white coat effect a good compromise

[Lissa]

Hmmm, it seems mine is fairly high then. Mostly 130-145/80-100, although I've had a couple of 120-ish/90-ish. My pulse is pretty consistent though at around 90-95. I'm guessing that the results may mean I'll be put onto drugs to control it

Funnily enough, my lowest readings have been when I was working on the bike at the weekend

mines low

i think it was 90/65 last time i checked pulse 65

[rictus01]

you're not using a cuff monitor are you Lissa? they are the most unreliable of the lot, it all depends how high you hold your wrist.

Cheers Mark.

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by rictus01

you're not using a cuff monitor are you Lissa? they are the most unreliable of the lot, it all depends how high you hold your wrist.

Cheers Mark.

I'm using one identical to the one they use in the surgery Mark, goes around the top of your arm. I'm also being careful to try to keep my arm in a similar position each time, in case that affects things.