This makes my blood boil!

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

Recently Ann & I went to our PCP [ primary care physician ] to have our blood pressure checked. Ann had great readings; however, mine were high in the 165/86 range.
Obviously there was concern that I would be prone to either a stroke or heart attack.
Doc asked the obvious questions regarding the litany of symptoms one might exhibit of which I showed none of them.
In fact I have not shown any changes in my health for a long as I can recall.
As his urging, we purchased a high-end Blood Pressure Monitor (BPM) and logged our readings. We were told the usual:
(1) Feet flat on the floor, sitting in a chair;
(2) No caffeine, or having just eaten;
(3) Rested for at least 10 minutes, etc.
Ann's readings remained good; however, mine were still high.
Doc eventually put me on a low dose med.
Here is my confusion.

Why do they ask that you meet all the conditions above, when you should take it at anytime during the day after any activity?
My reasoning is that although someone may have good readings when relaxed, they could easily have a high reading after strenuous conditions at which time they could have a stroke or heart attack! 

Yet they were not originally diagnosed with hypertension. 
Your thoughts?

[Alpo]

THEY want you to take it following those conditions so they have a baseline. If you take your blood pressure as soon as you get up, and tomorrow you take it after cutting the grass, and the day after tomorrow you jog for 5 miles and then take it, you can have three entirely different readings. You wasted your time taking it.

[Trigger Mike]

Yep, take it while resting etc to see what is is normally and if you exercise etc it won’t go as high if it never normal conditions it is lower plus if you can control it while resting when it does go up when you get the dr bill it’ll go back sooner.

 

im also hearing that blood pressure raised by exercise is good but if raised uncontrollably is bad.  

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The Armstrong Limit makes your blood boil.

[Pat Riot]

Kit,

One thing that you should do if their BP reading is done with their electronic machines is insist on a cuff reading by the doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant. Often those machines read high. 
Also take your home electronic device with you and as soon as he or she takes the cuff reading to see how it compares. Often these portable units read 10 points high on the systolic or diastolic readings and sometimes both. 
 

I never trust their machines, especially if the result could be the prescribing of medication you may not truly need. 
 

[Duffield, SASS #23454]

1 hour ago, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

Recently Ann & I went to our PCP [ primary care physician ] to have our blood pressure checked. Ann had great readings; however, mine were high in the 165/86 range.
Obviously there was concern that I would be prone to either a stroke or heart attack.
Doc asked the obvious questions regarding the litany of symptoms one might exhibit of which I showed none of them.
In fact I have not shown any changes in my health for a long as I can recall.
As his urging, we purchased a high-end Blood Pressure Monitor (BPM) and logged our readings. We were told the usual:
(1) Feet flat on the floor, sitting in a chair;
(2) No caffeine, or having just eaten;
(3) Rested for at least 10 minutes, etc.
Ann's readings remained good; however, mine were still high.
Doc eventually put me on a low dose med.
Here is my confusion.

Why do they ask that you meet all the conditions above, when you should take it at anytime during the day after any activity?
My reasoning is that although someone may have good readings when relaxed, they could easily have a high reading after strenuous conditions at which time they could have a stroke or heart attack! 

Yet they were not originally diagnosed with hypertension. 
Your thoughts?

 

[Duffield, SASS #23454]

Just now, Duffield, SASS #23454 said:

 

It has been my experience that diet influences blood pressure ,so lowering salt intake helps ax well as avoidance of coffee and sodas. The best time to check blood pressure is on arising after sleep which reflects typical heartwood pressure.It helps to avoid salt and watch the diet.  If you continue to have a resting high blood pressure you need to take meds to avoid a stroke and ease up on heart issues. See a dietician via MD order. Check your BP on rising,after strenuous exercise and bedtime. Avoid caffeine and high sodium foods  , give your physician a list of all medication over the counter. Journal your diet,exercise and any meds you take as well as over the counters and go over this with your doctor.  You do not want to make your heart work harder to avoid further complications.  Sign up for diet classes,start regular excercise,avoid alcohol,chocolate. 

Take charge and follow your dietary and MD orders. 

The above written by my wife, a RN with 53 years experience.

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Duffield, SASS #23454 said:

It has been my experience that diet influences blood pressure ,so lowering salt intake helps ax well as avoidance of coffee and sodas. The best time to check blood pressure is on arising after sleep which reflects typical heartwood pressure.It helps to avoid salt and watch the diet.  If you continue to have a resting high blood pressure you need to take meds to avoid a stroke and ease up on heart issues. See a dietician via MD order. Check your BP on rising,after strenuous exercise and bedtime. Avoid caffeine and high sodium foods  , give your physician a list of all medication over the counter. Journal your diet,exercise and any meds you take as well as over the counters and go over this with your doctor.  You do not want to make your heart work harder to avoid further complications.  Sign up for diet classes,start regular excercise,avoid alcohol,chocolate. 

Take charge and follow your dietary and MD orders. 

The above written by my wife, a RN with 53 years experience.

Good advice here ^^^^^
 

Sugar also can affect BP

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

11 hours ago, Alpo said:

THEY want you to take it following those conditions so they have a baseline. If you take your blood pressure as soon as you get up, and tomorrow you take it after cutting the grass, and the day after tomorrow you jog for 5 miles and then take it, you can have three entirely different readings. You wasted your time taking it.

@Alpo,

I understand the concept of establishing a baseline; however, once that has been done, it doesn't preclude a person with a baseline of 120/80 having situations where their blood pressure can rise to dangerous levels and they suffer a heart attack or stroke. 
Granted a baseline of 160/96 puts one at a higher risk, thus requiring the need for medicine to lower those readings and decreasing the chances of a stroke,  etc.
My current levels do not reflect the normal symptoms of someone with hypertension, so maybe I'm just an anomaly,  or a ticking time bomb. 

[Pb Mark]

In my younger days when power weightlifting, my blood pressure spiked around 350/250 during the activity.  We had a medical experiment monitoring a group for the data.  Blood pressure is a simple pumping equation and one size down not fit all.  

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

11 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

Kit,

One thing that you should do if their BP reading is done with their electronic machines is insist on a cuff reading by the doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant. Often those machines read high. 
Also take your home electronic device with you and as soon as he or she takes the cuff reading to see how it compares. Often these portable units read 10 points high on the systolic or diastolic readings and sometimes both. 
 

I never trust their machines, especially if the result could be the prescribing of medication you may not truly need. 
 

@Pat Riot,

You are correct regarding the differences in readings between the professional manual version at the doctor's office and a home machine.

Our PCP had us bring in the machine we were using so he could compare figures.
We purchased a new monitor that he had suggested and was rated at 94% accurate to a test unit that does accuracy checks.

 

Even so, the readings for me were 10 points higher, and Ann's were 17 points higher on our monitor.
After that visit and me taking medicine to track the hopeful decrease, my current reading of 155, if adjusted by the 10 point difference would be 145; however, if the 17 point difference is adjusted on Ann's current reading of 120, she would be reflecting 103!
Mind boggling to say the least. 

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

11 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

The Armstrong Limit makes your blood boil.

@Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984,

Thanks. 

 

The Armstrong limit or Armstrong's line is a measure of altitude above which atmospheric pressure is sufficiently low that water boils at the normal temperature of the human body. Exposure to pressure below this limit results in a rapid loss of consciousness, followed by a series of changes to cardiovascular and neurological functions, and eventually death, unless pressure is restored within 60–90 seconds.^[1] On Earth, the limit is around 18–19 km (11–12 mi; 59,000–62,000 ft) above sea level,^[1][2] above which atmospheric air pressure drops below 0.0618 atm (6.3 kPa, 47 mmHg, or about 1 psi). The U.S. Standard Atmospheric model sets the Armstrong pressure at an altitude of 63,000 feet (19,202 m).

If the cockpit lost pressure while the aircraft was above the Armstrong limit, even a positive pressure oxygen mask could not sustain pilot consciousness.

The term is named after United States Air Force General Harry George Armstrong, who was the first to recognize this phenomenon.^[3]

 

^{https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_limit}

[Old Man Graybeard]

High blood pressure is a funny thing...a friend of mine had to take a routine physical for work a couple of years ago. Where he went for his physical sent him to urgent care...they sent him to the emergency room. They could not get his blood pressure because as they found out at the ER...it was 300 something over 200 something. The doctors told him it had increased gradually enough that his body had adjusted to it...therefore...he had no symptoms. It took several days in the hospital to get his blood pressure back where it should be. Untreated high blood pressure is nothing to fool with. That is what the doctors blame my kidney disease on...and another friend had a brain bleed stroke last summer they blame on high blood pressure

[Pb Mark]

During your next 15 minutes provided by the doctor, here are some questions to ask:

 

How thick is the vein you are measuring with the monitor?  What is the viscosity of my blood?  What is the size of my pump (heart)?  Is my pump leaking?  Are the valves operating properly?  What is the range of my blood volume and how does it change during the day?  How does temperature effect my blood pressure?  Why, with all this medicine are people in America dying at a younger average age than before?  An important one - what are the possible side effects of this medicine and why did you not explain this last time?  Do you receive a financial incentive by any drug company for prescribing their medicine? Why did they recently change their favorite numbers to 120/80?  Why one size fits all? 

 

The list goes on and on.  What did you achieve though by doing the questioning?  You just raised your doctors blood pressure too.  

 

PV=nRT

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

@Old Man Graybeard,

"The doctors told him it had increased gradually enough that his body had adjusted to it...therefore...he had no symptoms."

That is something I had not considered.

Thank you for presenting it to us.