This is a heads up for people who do not measure their blood pressure at home.
The estimates are 25% to 33% of people measure high blood pressure in a doctor’s office and at home it is normal. There are enough people who do not measure at home at all that it is suspected that those numbers are low.
There is no better blood pressure treatment than to discover you are one of these people with what is called White coat hypertension. If so it is highly likely that no treatment is warranted. You do not spend your life in the doctor’s office. You spend the vast majority of it outside the doctor’s office and therefore the vast majority of your hours are spent with normal blood pressure and no treatment to achieve that.
Elderly with low cholesterol might very well be suspected of having this. The hardening of the arteries much spoken of requires a raw material to have that hardening take place. Cholesterol is the material and if yours is low or normal with no treatment it would be difficult to have hardening of the arteries, which is a primary mechanism in the elderly for hypertension.
Docs are very much aware of this and that’s why I single measurement of high blood pressure does not immediately trigger treatment. They will want to follow it for a while. But chances are they do so in the clinic where you are elevated.
There has been some research on this that suggests it is not an issue of nervousness or fear of doctors or things of that sort. Current speculation is there was an experience as a child that was negative and a doctor’s office and it hard wires the brain to react to that environment during your formative years. You can sit down and relax for a long time. You can tell yourself to relax and stop being afraid. But it has nothing to do with any of that. The brain triggers hypertension because it grew up that way in that environment.
Anyway, heads up. Get yourself a blood pressure monitor. They’re cheap. There is a website that will list all of the blood pressure monitors available to the public and whether they have been certified as accurate. Validatebp.org from the AMA
“The estimates are 25% to 33% of people measure high blood pressure in a doctor’s office and at home it is normal.”
In Europe they just ASK YOU what you’re blood pressure is at home. I guess here the drug companies don’t permit that.
Anyway, for those who get more drugs than they need, and if the drugs are cheap, take what you need to have a BP you’re happy with, and just pack away the rest and and use them if you go on a long cruise or otherwise out of town for a while...rather than have to beg to get them in advance.
I regularly have abnormally high diastolic pressure; this would do nothing for me. Then it test normal a week later, so I dont know what to do.
Cholesterol does NOT cause hardening of the arteries.
Chronic Inflammation CAUSES hardening of the arteries.
I am 65, with high cholesterol since i was 25 (that’s 40 years). I get a scan every year. They grade it based on how little plaque is in my arteries. 100 is none detected, and 0 is you have all your arteries clogged (you would be dead long before that).
I am VERY careful about inflammation. I take natural anti-inflammatory supplements, and avoid inflammatory foods and exposures. Do some research about why the body produces cholesterol.
If you are on statins, that’ really bad. You should address the inflammation, which will allow your body to not plaque out even in the presence of high cholesterol.
My family got me a BP monitor with blue tooth capabilities - I was able to upload my average monthly results straight to my health care provider - meaning I didn’t have to make a trip over to the clinic (paid parking!).
Yesterday, I went to get an eye check up and the first thing they did was give me a BP test - I wasn’t expecting it - and my BP was 10 pts. higher than it is at home - but fortunately, still in the acceptable range.
Have you heard of Dr. Howard Schubiner?
Understanding Mind Body Syndrome.
https://unlearnyourpain.com/mind-body-syndrome/
He has posted a wealth of information on he web, and offers much of it for free, and does not sell supplements or *cures*.
Interesting stuff though and much of it makes a lot of sense.
The first thing for ANYONE to do though, is rule out ANY possibility that there is a true physical cause, like heart attack, stroke, cancer, etc. One CANNOT assume that their symptoms are brain conditioned to begin with.
But if no physical cause can be found for the problem, then it's time to consider this option as it is becoming more evident that the brain is far more powerful and exerts much greater influence on the body than was previously thought.
We are not just a collection of parts or systems that operate independently.