Read this as I lanced my finger to get blood for my glucose meter. Yup, gotta love the machines. Blood pressure is such a hard one too. So hard to stay calm and keep your blood pressure down when you are monitoring your blood pressure. Last time I was having blood pressure issues I went to the Emergency room. They kept trying to have me lie down and relax... in a room full of medical tools... surrounded by sick and injured people... yeah....

Sympathies abound :< It's hard work relaxing around doctors/nurses... even though you know they're there to put you right again, the truth is you wouldn't be sharing a room if you didn't need putting right x(

Definitely not going to read it again until tomorrow. Unfortunately I've become aware that the more pumps it gives, the harder a time its having getting a pulse to start with so... there's kind of a clue even when I don't want to know. Still, the last one was on the end of a workout because I specifically want to know what it ends up at after a workout. And definitely how it compares to the number the nurse gave me while I was standing up for a test run in her office :P If it comes in less, I can probably (maybe) lifestyle my way out of this, otherwise I suspect they'll have me on the pills...

Still, better to know while I'm (relatively) young and before I've had a stroke! If I need pills, I'd rather be on them, and getting regular monitoring, than not and taking my chances! There's no outcome of this that's worse than ignorance :)

Diet and exercise can go a long ways to prevent the need for medication, but if it does come to that point it's not so bad. I was started on lisinopril several years ago to combat my high blood pressure. It is a great medication that took me from extremely high hypertension to normal in a few days and kept me there, only side effect was muscle cramps which were easily countered with over the counter potassium supplements. I was on it for a couple years before I developed a constant dry cough. One of the known side effects of the medication. They have changed me to losartan which is doing a good job so far without the need for the potassium. At my works Health and Wellness thing the other day my blood pressure was right on 120/80.

Glad things are working out for you with the right meds, good to know such pills are out there ^^

I know a Doctor and he did a little experiment with blood pressure readings. He administered some and a lovely nurse administered some and then a more elderly very kind soothing lady (He described her as "Everyone's kind grandmother") administered some. The results were not surprising. The stress of the first two always resulted in higher readings while the third's calming charm tended to result in lower readings from every patient.

Also know that the blood pressure requirements in the USA are stupidly low and out of whack compared to the rest of the world. So if you are dealing with that standard you may be enduring more stress than you should be in an effort to sell you blood pressure medications.

Either way, try to remain calm and remember that positive emotions and thinking does actually have a tangible effect on your health. It sounds like you have done right by your body so far and it will probably keep going alright for as long as you will it. Either way you can have a chuckle at the irony of stressing out about not stressing out. (Been there myself and had to laugh at the situation.)

We call that white coat syndrome :) Tbh, having a machine suddenly buzz to life isn't ideal, because it makes me jump and probably puts a spike of pressure in just as its reading x(

My readings today (before I stopped looking) were 140/87 and 142/83. The "mild hypertension" lower limit is listed as 140/90 here, so when I'm actually chilled out and sat down, it's not that terrible by those standards. Something to monitor for sure, but not something to panic over. The ideal is listed as 100-120/80. Unfortunately standing in the nurse's office put me at 160/something, which is the top end of mild, verging on moderate. Hopefully there won't be any other readings like that, but I intend to have a completely normal evening, which will include spending an hour or so standing up at the pub because I need to know what happens when I do...

Frustratingly, I thought my cardio health was good... my resting pulse is around 60, so I have no idea where this has come from :(

Your body does goes through various changes throughout the day and the year as well as a FYI. It may be the time of year is actually causing some issues for you. You could also be fighting off the initial invasion of a disease because almost all diseases get the pressure up as your body gears up for the fight. Another thing is lack of sleep so I hope you get plenty of good rest. When you first wake up your pressure is usually at high levels as well.

A lot of factors play in but it sounds to me like you are mostly fine. Do you actually feel like there is something wrong? Does it feel to you like your pressure is too much? Do you get light headed or short of breath? If it is not really causing you any issues then you may be getting stressed for no good reason. Your body will generally let you know when it is having a real problem.

I know for me that they found that my pulse and pressure were lower when they used a test that looked at the movement of the veins in my eyes instead of using the cuff. This because I naturally tend to freak out slightly as the cuff constricts me and it makes my pressure and heart rate spike.

Basically I wouldn't be aware anything is wrong if I didn't have a beeping machine telling me something is wrong :/ I didn't know about alternate tests... I will raise the question when I get the numbers reviewed. It's made me jump nearly every time because there's no warning before it inflates :( (Also I want to know if some people are just plain hard to read... I don't understand how I can have a resting heartrate of 58-62, but also blood pressure issues.)

Some people are hard to read indeed.

That really sucks, I got some test done yesterday morning to check if I don't have another issue, did walked out with a cane though so that's a new thing in my life >.>

Canes are good, you can hit people things with them and pretend it was an accident! ;)

I know, I'll just smack the pe...things that are in my way with it

Been there a couple months ago. Got my jaw broke, while at the hospital, after getting my jaw aligned and mouth wired shut, people kept coming in every 2 hours, waking me up to take my BP. On discharge, this one doctor kept pestering me about my BP being so high, lose weight, eat more veggies, yada-yada-yada. I already eat 4 times as many veggies as the rest of my family combined, heck, I just finished off a bowl of corn I heated up in the microwave. I have always had test results that are nowhere near what is considered 'normal', I have never once in my life ever claimed to BE normal. My regular body temp is around 99.9 instead of 98.6, my height-to-weight proportion is way off (considered obese), but many years ago I didn't just exercise, I built up a lot of muscle and most of it is still there. I have control over each of my abdominal muscle groups even still to this day. I took the time years ago to learn about my body, how it's supposed to work, and no matter what any doctor has said, I am in good health.

I don't smoke, don't drink except on the strictest of celebratory occasions (shot of my grandpa's favored whiskey to honor him on new years), no drugs of any kind through my life (most times I don't even take aspirin for a headache unless as a last resort). I drink water, green tea, whole milk, various fruit juices, only eat out once a week and that's my only soda consumption.

Lol, yeah, I know where you're coming from. My one vice is beer - of which I tend to have 2, 5x per week. I know a lot of people who drink far more. BMI is 26, body fat measures around 20-22%, which is a little soft but not particularly horrific by the standards of the day. Outside of that, I get my 5-a-day fruit and veg, limit my salt, sugar and fat, also a green tea fan :) I even avoid coffee!

So I literally have no idea where this has come from and find the whole thing grossly unfair tbqh :P However I will pay attention to the blood pressure reading because it doesn't really matter what is 'normal' for me. I doubt my veins care what my heart wants to deliver, and if I need to take steps/meds to bring it down to something sensible, then I'll do that. Better to know now, while it's still 'mild-moderate' and hasn't yet done me any harm, than in 10 years time when I get a bleed on my brain... I have unfortunately seen how a stroke kills you, and it's not pretty :(

4 hours to go until I can get rid of the monitor... and then probably 4 days until I can actually get a doctor's appointment to review it xD

i'm on blood pressure tablets 5 mg of ramipril atm as mine something like 95/ 156 or something >< i can't remember was last week my read but yes the machine 30 minutes intervals it will hug you OwO but mine as you can tell is higher than yours ><; im working on changing things and cutting my drinking down

I dunno, in the nurse's office it was 160/90-something, so... But even so, that's the bottom end of 'moderate' hypertension, rather than 'get thee to A&E!' I mean, not something you want, but not time to panic either.

As for cutting out the drinking... I honestly recommend non-alcoholic beer. Or whatever soft drinks are available at the bar :) I would have a hell of a time going cold-turkey on going to the pub, because I like to take my laptop and work on my story and talk to a few people - but it turns out I can switch my pint for a fruit juice and not really care. Same experience, just without the alcohol. In fact this is a really good time because a lot of people are doing dry january and you'll probably find someone else doing the same thing :)

Admittedly I do love a good beer, and I do want to establish a safe amount, but for the moment I've just cut it out and I'll see where I end up ^^

^^ yeah just tweaking things now before things get worse :3 also enjoy free hugs from "THE MACHINE" o_o HAHAHA ^^' ok im good being silly :3 but yeah hopw things change for you too ^^

Welcome to the world of White Coat Fever. I went to my cardiologist three weeks ago, bp was 124/70. Visited my allergist two weeks ago for some skin tests, bp was 134/84...and that was after getting 21 needles shoved under my skin. Went to renew my DOT physical a week ago, first reading was 160/98!!! I hate those machines, they drive my pressure way up. Second reading (using a regular cuff) was 156/95. They had me lie down in a darkened room for 40 minutes and finally got it down to 136/86. (The maximum allowed is 140/90) I've taken 5mg of Amlodipine besylate (Norvasc) for the past 15 years with no issues, get a physical stress test and nuclear scan every three years and have no build-up or blockages anywhere in my system. Oh, I'm 5'11", 230# and 73 as of last December. Welcome to the club. Take care of yourself but don't obsess about it.

Funny thing, I was getting over the BP issue... I was mostly reading around 138/87. Which is a bit higher than you'd like, but just below the threshold they start recommending medication. I'd stopped obsessively worrying and monitoring and just accepted this was life, would check it every few months and report to the doc if it goes higher.

Then the last 2 months I've had irregular heartbeats and palpitations, so that's kind of ramped my stress up again! Although they have me on a maintenance dose of beta blockers now, and I'm reading pretty much 120/80 every time...