what?????
Your BP varies a lot during the day. It is also looking for consistency. If they are very mixed they are not to be believed but if three out of four are close you can accept them. Some tell you discard the highest and lowest out of three others to use an average. My BP monitor gives an average of any series of readings I do.
4 times within 10 minutes is rubbish.
and...I hate to be a party pooper but the pharmaceutical companies are PUSHING their meds and doctors are getting enormous kickbacks for each and every subscription. It's crazy (my opinion) for doctors to be freaking people out who are 139/89 or less...honestly.
Perhaps to you but not to this expert on hypertension
What enormous kickback do they get from generic drugs that cost pennies ?
28 50mg Losartan cost 82 pence.28 Lisinopril 65 pence. The NHS are ripping you off with the prescription charges.
The point is many Rx drugs based on the "new" guidelines are being overprescribed, period. Be careful, keep asking questions, and seek another opinion or two when doubts persist.
You know derek76 if you want to pick a fight or start bullying others this is not the place. You have your opinion and experience as do the rest of us.
No no NO, Daisi! Putting Christmas on hold is just about the worst thing you could do. It will just put your focus on what you (mistakenly in my opinion) see as a serious problem, and make things worse. There's no way you're going to make any serious difference to your BP or your weight between now and 10 January anyway, even if you go on a near-fast.
On the assumption you're not going to get blind drunk every night for a week, eat an entire family pudding on the day and see in the New Year with a magnum of champagne just for you, I'd say go for it! A bit of normal festive fare on a few days of the year won't do you any harm. I've already started in on the mini-mince pies and am planning to do myself proud on Monday. In the New Year I'll step up my exercise levels a bit, and I know I'll rapidly lose the few extra pounds I'll have gained. It works every year.
It takes many years of high blood pressure to do any serious damage, and yours isn't even really high. That diastolic of 86 is only high-side of normal for age 59. The systolic of 156 is quite high, but it's the diastolic that's more important. A one-off high systolic in the presence of a more-or-less normal diastolic means nothing at all, as systolic pressure can be influenced by stress or anxiety - hence the expression "white coat syndrome".
My mother was found to have a BP of 195/140 at age 75, when she went to hospital after breaking her arm. As a former nu rse, I was furious that her GP had never picked up on this, especially as she was a lifelong two-packs-a-day smoker, and had suffered from frequent bouts of bronchitis for 20 years. (He subsequently admitted, when confronted, that he'd never once taken her BP in all that time!)
She immediately went on medication, which fortunately didn't give her any side-effects, and lived till the age of 89. It's true that she developed vascular dementia in her later years, but that can happen to anyone over the age of 80, and I suspect her 40-a-day habit, starting at age 14, didn't help a lot either.
Forget all about your BP over Christmas. Then dig out that BP monitor and start checking it from time to time. But no need to obsess over it - everyone's BP goes up and down throughout the day. Start your exercise programme now and the sensible eating after the holidays, and if you're still worried about your BP ask your doctor to put you on a 24-hour monitoring test. That's the gold standard for working out whether your BP is really a problem.
And above all, happy Whatever!
Whether 156/86 is seen as borderline or not depends on your doctor, Derek, and whether or not they're prepared to look at the more recent research on acceptable BP after middle age. I don't think it's really a country thing either, though I have the impression British doctors are less tolerant of slight increases after the age of 50 than some of their Continental colleagues.
My former GP, who wanted to prescribe medication for 150/90 at age 55, and the current one, who's not unduly concerned about an occasional spike of 160/95 at age 73, are both Belgian. The second one is male and about 15 years older than the first one, who was female, so there doesn't seem to be an age or gender bias either. I think it's mainly a question of which research they've read the most of.
I take it you are talking of American guidelines as you use "RX"
I never pick fights on here but you seem to put in aggressive one liners without any facts.
What is critical is your Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) which is normally between 70 mmHg and 110 mmHg and is what is more or less what is in your aorta which feeds your whole body with arterial blood. It is the pressure which is recognised in cardiology as being the one needed to be regulated for therapeutic purposes i.e. what drugs you need to keep it in range.
For normal heart rates (between 60 to 100 beats per minute) this is calculated as:
(systolic + (2 x diastolic))/3
So in your case this would be:
(156 + (86x2))/3 = (156 + 172)/3 = 109 mmHg
providing you are neither bradycardic (<60 bpm) nor tachycardic(>100bpm).
A MAP of at least 60 mmHg is necessary to provide sufficient blood flow to your major organs which means you have a margin of 86-60=26 mmHg to cope with times like when you stand up and blood drains down towards your lower limbs.
Your readings are normal.
Systolic, diastolic and pulse rate are all values that go up and down together according your body's demands.
If anything the above equation needs refining to incorporate all three measures which can change as fast as one heartbeat according to a generalised cardiac equation.
It's far easier to prescribe medication based on a couple of numbers that a machine connected to your arm gives out and can be interpreted how you like.
I can't post links on here but the UK guideline to doctors for non diabetic patients is:
Stage 1 hypertension Clinic blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or higher and subsequent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) daytime average or home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) average blood pressure is 135/85 mmHg or higher.
Stage 2 hypertension Clinic blood pressure is 160/100 mmHg or higher and subsequent ABPM daytime average or HBPM average blood pressure is 150/95 mmHg or higher.
Severe hypertension Clinic systolic blood pressure is 180 mmHg or higher or clinic diastolic blood pressure is 110 mmHg or higher.
When I was working in the NHS in the 1960s and 70s, each item on a patient's prescription card was prefaced by "Rx", usually with the horizontal down-stroke of the "R" lengthened and crossed through to form an "x". I worked in four different hospitals, and to the best of my recall this system was used in all of them. It was certainly in use in the London teaching hospital where I trained, as I remember being taught what it meant.
Hey, knock it off you two or you'll get us all taken down! There's some stuff on here that a lot of people would find very useful and reassuring - especially Bob37393's valuable contribution, which I've bookmarked btw, just in case. (Thanks Bob.) Let's all play nicely - it's Christmas. Or Winterval, or Whatever... Saturnalia, anyone?
Have a good one anyway!
Disagree as I too experience issues with blood pressure due to WCS; and a new young doctor (in a new state) who thinks she knows more than my doctors in NC. Thankfully, I have had two major surgeries in 2017 which completely discredit the new young doctor as my blood pressure is 91/61; 111/59 pre-anesthetic and 118/69; 111/70 post-anesthetic. My physical therapist has also recorded my blood pressure well below 120/80 during my lengthy rehabilitation. My blood pressure is completely normal EXCEPT when I go to the new young doctor at which time I sit in a puddle of sweat (dripping out of every orifice, hair matted to my scalp) and anxiety as I think what nonsense she will throw at me today? I am here to see her due to an upper respiratory infection or toe nail fungus, and she is going to force Lisinopril at me without hearing one word I say or think. In fact, the new young doctor does not even have my medical records from NC because NC is my home and I will not under any circumstance give this particular doctor "new provider" status, no way... Thankfully, my orthopaedic surgeon, PT both in WI and my doctors back home in NC support me and my decision NOT to take any blood pressure medication that the new young doctor insists on prescribing. I have WCS. The new young doctor is a quack. So you see derek76, as a 55-year-old professional with degrees including Health and Health Education along with my own personal experience and opinion I too can comment with some degree of authenticity.
It is surprising how little attention seem to be given to that now. I once mentioned it to a nurse taking my BP and got a blank look.