just had a resting BP check 166/100 , which is high apparently?.

Anyone any experience with high BP readings?

Yes that's high

Mine was 150/100 a few months ago

You'll need to get it checked a few times a few days apart

I'm now taking drugs to reduce it, last time I checked it was 125/95 – still a bit high

Do you get more than the "average" number of headaches?

Not really, sometimes pounding ones though.

Had a badly half bloodshot eye after a ride recently for no reason and have been experiencing what i can only describe as a flutter near or actually my heart, this is what prompted me to go to quacks.

Got to go back today to do an ECG and take urine sample , oh and full blood test 🙁

Your BP will also be higher because you are sat in the doctors office, having it checked because you are worried about your health. for about £10 get a bp kit (wrist one will do you) check it every morning as you wake up, every night before bed and at around lunch time. Draw an average over the week to get a more accurate figure.

I went to the docs for headaches a couple of years ago and they took my BP.

The headaches went away but they concerned about my BP (around 165/90).

I had it checked a few times over a period of a few weeks and it was consistently high at the docs.

I was a bit peeved off so brought a recommended BP monitor at home, and voilà, it's always around 120/80.

The final time I went to the docs it was a bit better, but not as low as what I get doing it myself at home.

I put it down to nerves (so did the nurse) 🙂

I feel a BP monitor purchase coming on then.

If you are going to get a BP monitor (which I wouldn't recommend as they tend to cause more anxiety than they solve) please don't get one of the wrist ones as they consistently under-read.

The blood pressure you originally quote is a bit high, but this is nowt to worry about in the short term. It is consistently high BP over a number over years that slowly does the damage. The blood shot eye could be caused by the high BP causing a rupture in the tiny blood vessels in your eye (again nowt to worry about short term) but could also be caused by a million and one other things.

The urine and blood tests are simply to check that your kidneys are doing their job properly as they are closely involved in the control of your blood pressure so kidney problems can lead to BP problems. However, most people just have high BP for no particular reason but it is always worth ruling out kidney probs. ECG is routine for anyone with high BP although very rarely shows anything of any great interest….

Any other questions feel free to ask.

High BP runs in my family so it's worth getting it checked out.
I haven't bothered with a home BP tester I just go to the docs every couple of weeks as they want to take blood to check that the meds aren't interfering with kidney function. Once my dosage is stable I guess that I won't need to go so often. I went 4 times before getting a prescription just to make sure it wasn't white coat hypertension. And they gave me a monitor to wear for 24 hours.

Well , urine was fine. Did my ECG, still got to do full blood tests for cholesterol, kidneys, diabetes etc.

Did buy a BP monitor, on special offer at Lloyds Pharmacy for £14.99 reduced from £30 (wife persisted i need one!!??!!).

Don't think much to worry about really, only maybe the heart flutter thing.

Anxiety / Stress?

Did buy a BP monitor, on special offer at Lloyds Pharmacy ….

If it is not listed as one of blood pressure monitors recommended by the British Hypertension Society, I would sling it and get one that is.

http://www.bhsoc.org/bp_monitors/automatic.stm

@ernie…..it is 🙂

you got a result 8)

As always, I'd listen to dr death up there

I'd had some major headache onsets recently, popped into local walk in last Friday and next thing I knew it was CT scans and lumbar punctures up at A&E.
Fortunatley I'm in the clear for haemorrage probs, but still a bit concerned about these headaches. I was having my BP and other stuff check every hour whilst in hospital but nothing showed up as being too bad.
It was an underpants transplant I needed after he said the word haemorrage, was a little bit shaken. I lost a mate from one a few months back.
Regular health checks men, there's none of us getting any younger!

Heart flutters – caffeine?

Heart flutter – usually nowt….

Very common for people to have the occasional ectopic but some people notice them, some people don't. If ECG was fine then I wouldn't worry about them as the more you worry about them the more you tend to notice them leading to a vicious circle… More common as you get older too.

p.s. Thanks for your vote of confidence Paul, you OK?

Thanks for the advice guys. The heart flutter thing happens when i've had caffeine or not had caffeine in the day, but to be fair i only drink coffee.

It,s weird though as it appears to be more prominent in the mornings and sometimes at night???

Don't know about ECG result as i had it with nurse and just went home nothing was said about it , had another BP test whilst there which was 163/101. As said before blood tests next then follow up appointment in 2 weeks.

Ermmmm errr Dr_death has covered it.

/shuffles off

Oh wait Dr_death you weren't at the General yesterday were you?

With me, the relationship between flutters and coffee is complex. Caffeine alone doesn't seem to do much. It has to be coffee – but if I have too much coffee, then have another or some other caffeine, I get flutters. The effect also lasts many days, rather than the few hours caffeine stays in your body.

I think it's something else in coffee (it's full of complex chemicals, theobromine for one) which causes problems in conjunction with caffeine.

Just try staying off the coffee, tea, chocolate or coke for say three or four days. I find that if I overdo coffee one day, even one cup then causes me trouble. I have to 'reset' myself with a few days off coffee then I can drink plenty again. I say plenty, I'm tlaking two cups max.

White coat hypertension, some research a couple of years ago suggested that those with WC hypertension ahould progress onto trreatment earlier rather than later as they tend to have other periods of high BP when they are not in the doctors surgery.

When getting BP checked get some done at different times of day, as BP can show variability during the course of the day, and is generally higher in the late afternoon & evenings – after work GP appointments for example.

White101, if those headaches don't settle in the next couple of weeks, then back to GP to be seen again. Also if you're taking simple pain releif such as paracetamol that can cause a "rebound" headache, I prefer ibuprofen for headaches as it doesn't seem to have the same problems with rebound.

@molgrips….

interesting stuff, however if i don't have a coffee all day i suffer from awful headaches, i'm guessing that is almost caffeine withdrawal?

I'm sweet mr death, all coming Along nicely ta!

i'm guessing that is almost caffeine withdrawal?

Ooh.. well if you're that hooked on coffee that you get withdrawal, no flippin wonder you are having flutters!

I saw a programme about this. You're in luck – coffee withdrawal only lasts a few days, and you feel way better for it 🙂

Well i assume its coffee withdrawal 😯

How many cups per day, and of what?

ECG is routine for anyone with high BP although very rarely shows anything of any great interest….

When I had mine due to persistant high bp over a few yrs the doc was impressd by the readings but was concerned by my hr, it was dropping all the time during ecg down to a low of 50bpm. Not sure he understood that when I say I do a bit of biking, bit of qwimming, bit of gym and a bit of walking that he new at what level that is(for my age)

missingfrontalobe, your dead right with the rebound thing! was given weeks worth of 500mg paracetomols and feel worse every time I have them, have gone for the ibruprofen. doffs cap

Bigbloke – Yep, that's caffiene withdrawal, I find the best way to deal with it is to drink more coffee…. 😉

Drac – I was up at the general on Wednesday for a few hours in the morning….. I'm starting there for a year but am on paternity leave at the moment. Wednesday was the first day so I thought I should at least show my face. Which one are you????

Paul – Glad to hear things are on the mend.

Dr-death- Drac is the one that brings in patients with punture repairs on their cuts instead of plasters; instead of administering air he just shoves a co2 canister up the patients bum; apparantly he is one of the better paramedics 😉

you'll know drac when he smiles at you…

Drac – I was up at the general on Wednesday for a few hours in the morning….. I'm starting there for a year but am on paternity leave at the moment. Wednesday was the first day so I thought I should at least show my face. Which one are you????

I work from Alnwick so don't get very often, although was there Wednesday and Thursday. Was there late morning with a guy we were taking to the PPCI and then had to divert to NGH we then stayed with him to take to the PPCI.

Baz (?sp) was around looking after the guy.

You'll know me for sure when I smile wwaswas is right, failing tall thin and balding which doesn't narrow it down. I'm a Team Leader so will have 2 pips on. Looks like we might get less often now as they're insisting on nearest A+E again and not most appropriate.

Well, nice to not quite meet you. If you spot a tall-ish, thin, blond haired doc, that's me.

I get ectopic beats quite regularly.

As the result of a one-off high BP reading (160/100), I ended up with an ECG. This alerted possible right ventricular hypertrophy (knackerd heart). I thought *eek* and was sent for an echocardiogram which showed a slighlty leaky valve (murmur).

This prompted a referral to a consultant. Transpires that there is no murmu, not RVH, rather that I have right bundle branch block (essentially some of the wiring of my heart doesn't work, so it has a slight arrhythmia.

Which is why I'm aware of my ectopic beats.

And all this because I wanted the doc to sign off my Étape du Tour entry form…. 😯

Well, nice to not quite meet you. If you spot a tall-ish, thin, blond haired doc, that's

And you. That's why I asked guy who came at the end to check was tall and blonde. Think he was one of the gasmen as he double checking things with Ming.

BP readings can be notoriously inaccurate. I check mine occassionally on a very expensive bit of kit and they can vary from 155 to 105 systolic in back-to-back readings, which is why I tend to do it manually on patients if it appears abnormally high or low. I would guess that the ones GP's use are not any better

DrD are you mainly at the QE (when working)as I tend to get there fairly regularly ?

Used to work at the QE but that was 2 years ago now. Will be working at NGH for the next year, then god knows where after that….

Similar situation here ….I recently had a hospital stay due to a cycling accident and had BP readings of 200 through to 155 ….the highest reading was the day of being admitted to Theatre and the nurse using a small size cuff !!

As a precaution they perscribed me Amlodpine Tablets to reduce my BP level , as they are now about to run out i have a follow up vist with my GP to decide whats next .

Thoughts and experinces guys .

It,s weird though as it appears to be more prominent in the mornings and sometimes at night???

it might be at times when you're less engrossed, or more likely to notice for some other reason. It's worth pointing out that, as dr_death points out, it's quite common, and in fact a very regular heartbeat can be symptomatic of problems – it's supposed to jitter (I once read)

I checked mine while visiting my brother in hospital and it was 94/62 or something, seems a bit low to me