Is it worth getting my own and keeping a record. I seem to be in the ‘not good for you range’ according to my GP and I wonder if checking it regularly will be useful, or faff.

Anyone else found it useful to monitor it?

I check mine regulatory and log it on an app on my phone. Mine is always high when I visit the quacks so now he doesn’t even bother checking it himself.

That was my thought too. Perhaps it makes sense to get one then, thanks

Good keeping an eye on long term trends, but take actual values with a pinch of salt*.

*not literally, that would increase them 😉

Thanks for the salt of the earth wisdom

I have one. It works okay-ish. GP surgery now has a proper one and it’s easy to stop for 5 mins when passing and take a quick test, walk-in no appointment / supervision needed.

As an aside mine has always been high eg140/90, after reading another thread started by matt_outwardbound I have been taking Montmorency Cherry Juice (concetrate diluted with water) which seems to be helping a bit (google various studies, eg Northampton Uni ?)

I have one and use it for a few days each month as a check that my bt is still in the right range (taking a relatively low dose CCB). Be aware however that they are not as accurate as the regularly calibrated units that you can borrow from your GP (at least from mine). I bought this Omron unit.

I’m currently 130 over 101 and will be getting pills soon I suspect. Usual thing: work stress and desk job.

More riding must be done in those hours found between guilt and reality

Well worth taking your own readings and many GPs encourage it. Readings at the GP’s suffer from white coat syndrome and often tend to be higher than normal.

Home monitors may not be as accurate, but they’re in the right ballpark. Important thing is to take regular readings at various times and compare them. Some will be high, some less. So long as it’s a reasonable average and no obviously high readings over a long period.

If there’s particular concern your GP may get you on a 24hr monitor to get an average over a day.

Also, there’s high and then there’s proper high. What is high depends on the person, but a lot of what’s considered a concern is mainly a flag to tell you to do something about it, but isn’t an imminent heart attack / stroke flag. Unless you live in the US and then even a high normal reading will get you diagnosed with pre-hypertension (bollox term – no such condition exists), and allows them to sell you drugs for it.

check mine daily and log it on the iPhone.
post stent fitting so was asked to keep an eye on it.

use an omron basic, £20 something from amazon add it’s the same as the surgery use !!

many GPs encourage

Do they? I thought it was the opposite.

white coat syndrome

Thought this idea was now ignored? Readings may well be lower outside of a medical environment, but the readings that all the numbers/tables/stats are based on were generally made in a medical environment.

IANADr

White coat is a real thing for some people. Mrs 24k is so bad that she once had a full on panic attack when a nurse pulled out the BP monitor. It got so bad that the nurse ran off to get help whilst leaving the wife breathing in a brown paper bag.
We have a BP monitor at home and our GP likes to compare the at home readings to the sky high ones taken at the surgery.

UrbanHiker – Member 
Do they? I thought it was the opposite.

Mine was very pleased when I said I had my own BP monitor and said exactly that they encourage people to use them, for the very reason of white coat syndrome. I’ve heard the same from a number of people and family from their GPs.

White coat definitely exists with my family. All of us are way higher at the surgery than at home and out in daily life (a number of us having had the 24 hr monitor).

Your own home kit is not a substitute for an accurate reading at the surgery though, but it helps them get an idea of what it’s like outside of the surgery environment. As I say, if there’s any real concern they’ll give you the 24hr kit.

Depends on the person though. If they’re more of a hypochondriac and on doing their own readings they’re worrying and so it goes high, then home readings might be discouraged. Others are more reassured by home readings and they average out lower than at the surgery.

White coat syndrome is very common.

Mine is just high. Colleague who’s keeping it under review gets me to do 4 readings a day for a week every six months or so. For each reading I do three runs – the first one is often a bit higher than the other two.

If memory serves, if you’re <40 then you need working up for other causes of high blood pressure as primary hypertension is less common under 40.

My BP is high so am looking at getting something basic like Omron M2 Basic Upper Arm Blood Pressure Monitor …

Cheers all. I’ll go get one for sure now. Very helpful.

Serious overkill obviously but I got my mum the Withings monitor that syncs to your phone. She’s always had high blood pressure and suffers massively from white coat syndrome. It’s super easy to use & she can just do it at home then show the doc the graphs, etc on her phone.

White coat is a real thing for some people.

Very real for me! My Blood pressure is always VERY high when taken in docs or at hospital (was once told a forthcoming operation couldn’t go ahead until my blood pressure came down). Usually get sent home with a machine for a 24 or 48 hour test. Turns out my blood presuure is actaully very good!!

I went through this last year after my occupational health check advised I see the GP about blood pressure.

They took bloods and looked at my Cholesterol split, then had me track my blood pressure 4 times daily for 4 weeks before following it up all together.

I kept a log on and app that showed trend lines and such. It was very useful to appreciate how highly variable blood pressure can be. I made some very minor diet changes and some work changes to mitigate stress, and now I’m bang where I should be for blood pressure. Cholesterol is 5.2 which looks bad at face value, but my split is heavily biased towards the good HDL and the GP was not at all worried about it.

I’m assuming I had white coat syndrome too although felt v relaxed. When I give blood they take my bp then tell me to lay down quietly for a while and they’ll take it again….always fine the 2nd time. Went to Dr’s as was a bit concerned and he advised a 24 hour bp monitor….results over 24 hour were ‘absolutely fine’.

So just go to GP and get a BP monitor

Another who eventually diagnosed with white coat syndrome although i was on tablets for 4 years and was only 26 yo, used to get strapped to strange things crocodile clips over the body. Havent taken medicine for 25 years occasionally check myself get green sometimes amber results. It was a good doctor that weaned me off medicine whereas another upped my dose or changed tablets, one or two side effects i didnt want

I’m currently 130 over 101 and will be getting pills soon I suspect. Usual thing: work stress and desk job.

140/90 is top of normal – so the second number is high (always forget proper name). I suspect they will want to look at lifestyle first, excersize, diet etc ..

Good luck

jambalaya – Member

I’m currently 130 over 101 and will be getting pills soon I suspect. Usual thing: work stress and desk job.

140/90 is top of normal – so the second number is high (always forget proper name). I suspect they will want to look at lifestyle first, excersize, diet etc ..

Good luck [/quote]

I think the second number is called the rest pulse or something like that.

Mine is also high at 100.

The numbers are systolic ( at the peak of the heartbeat) for the higher number and Diastolic(when the heart is relaxed

Interesting some countries don’t use these measures – they use mean arterial pressure instead ( basically an average of the two) and recently at work we have gone from looking at the systolic number to gauge health to diastolic. ( or the other way round – can’t remember right now.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with a home monitor. Readings can be inaccurate and variable and can give you reasons to worry where there is no need. But its not something I feel strongly about.

YOu can of course use one for biofeedback where you can train yourself to alter readings. After many boring night shifts over the years I alter my heartrate and BP at will by about 20% in each direction

good selection in argos about 20 quids, and free returns

Hypertension should always be diagnosed using average ambulatory (home datytime) readings rather than clinic readings. If in doubt get one. Your gp will be grateful that you’re taking an interest in your own health.

Some of you lit have fancier machines than I do!
I’ve an Omron something or other…

And as per above, home monitoring or 24hr monitor is the norm for diagnosis.
Monitoring at home is useful too..

Saves a review appointment ‘just to check’..

DrP

TJ French use some kind of ratio although last time the wife had it taken they used the “UK” system

And as per above, home monitoring or 24hr monitor is the norm for diagnosis.
Monitoring at home is useful too..

New York, New York so good they named it twice. A man after my own heart if its worth saying, it’s worth saying twice. I do acknowledge you where saying two different things there 🙂

OP have a read of this

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/talk-to-me-about-high-blood-pressure

I plugged myself into a hospital vital signs machine when the wife was recovering from an Op (Nurse didn’t seem too bothered that I’d unplugged her to do so)…

A fair bit of variation, three readings a few mins apart when I’m just sat in a chair…

124/66
107/66
113/49

One of these things

[url=https://flic.kr/p/EdfcnA]BP[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

I got a Boots one, made my Omron or a damn good copy with a Boots Logo.

It’s better than the one my diabetes nurse has that often resets part way through a test. I got it as I was getting silly high readings at the docs – had a 148/120 as my worse one. Must have got used to medical visits over the past few years and it’s been more normal at appointments now.

At home it’s pretty much borderline around 125/80. I keep a track of the trend, don’t want it creeping up as I’ve had Macular Oedema and high blood pressure isn’t great.

Thanks all. Bought one, been using it on and off all day and it seems consistent with the readings at the surgery.

Stress has to be controlled somehow.

I’ve been hovering around 150 over 98 all day.

Got this cold thing finally that’s been going around now, so not sure how that contributes.

Simple answer…more riding less food.

I think you’re fit to go home footflaps.

I got one since being but on BP tablets due to high normal BP combined with AF putting me at stroke risk.
Can’t remember the brand mine is, got good Amazon reviews, better than the Omrons but cheaper.
Last time I was hooked up to a viral signs machine my BP was even lower than Footflaps, but that’s because I was on the verge of fainting due to be squeamish and having had a cannula put in.

AndyRT – Member 
Simple answer…more riding less food.

+1

Though I find the food a struggle. More riding = more hungry = pig out post ride 😀 (and add booze to that).

Got this cold thing finally that’s been going around now, so not sure how that contributes.

Simple answer…more riding less food.

Part of it, it’s probably a bit different for everyone but I found exercise alone isn’t enough to bring down BP.

Biggest contribution to lowering my BP was stopping the daytime coffee binges. Work in an IT Office so the coffee rounds gets a bit silly. Sleep better too, which probably helps too.

Stress is a bitch, I took a less stressy job to manage health better, less pay, better quality of life. It’s started getting stressy again so looking to move again.

I get slightly higher readings when ill.

So if I’m well, exercise, not stressed, sleep well and avoid too much coffee then I tend to get the lowest readings. Took a bit trial and error to find out what worked though.

I hear you deadkenny, but I must resist.

I’ve suffered from high BP for 10 years now and it still sits at 140/100 as an average.

I’ve tried…
• Changing diet
• Cutting out coffee
• Cutting out alcohol
• More exercise (although I wasn’t unfit when diagnosed, far from it).

Made sod-all difference! The only thing that gets mine down is drugs.

And even then if I take drugs that get it down to normal I feel like shite and almost brain-dead.

So me and the doc have reduced the levels and he’s happy with a consistant ‘high’ level as my cholesterol is low and all blood tests come back as normal.

GP here. Omron are usually good. Some points though…

1) Calibration drifts – we need all our instruments calibrated every 6 months
2) Ones that work on the forearm are rubbish
3) Get one that is BHS/AHA certified
4) Sometimes I check patients meters against my mercury sphyg in the surgery and they are often shockingly out.
5) We do 24hr BP monitoring on people before diagnosis of hypertension, and in monitoring if there is any doubt.

And increasingly – we are partly interested in the BP, but if it is borderline it your overall cardiovascular risk that drives how aggressively we treat BP.

We might accept a BP of 150/90 in someone at low risk, but if you are a diabetic with renal issues we want 130/70.

And as per above, home monitoring or 24hr monitor is the norm for diagnosis.
Monitoring at home once diagnosed, and to keep a regular eye on the pressure, is useful too..

..is what I meant to say/allude to!

DrP

Thanks. As usual, in awe of this forum. I’m going concentrate on some behavioural changes associated to food (stop grazing and snacking).
Currently hovering around 120kgs at 6ft, so need to lose a bunch of weight.
Reduce stress, increase exercise…

I’ll see if that has an impact. It should.