Info on blood pressure please

elona

Well done for the link Ted (if I may call you that) :A and :T

Joe_Bloggs

I always thought of caffeine as a vasodilator. But the story is too simple. What we eat effects what we think and how we feel and also the metabolism. My mum had near lethal hypertension due to HRT dose and hormonal imbalance. Can't blame the GP as he died of overwork. Mum was a nurse and had her condition detected by a nursing collegue checking out blood pressure equipment.
My mum retired and took up a gym membership and regularly does the equivalent of 15Km walking and a 1Km of swimming.
See what could be in tea, coffee and chocolate on this site.
http://coffeefaq.com/caffaq.html
J_B.

Ted_Hutchinson

[size=+1]Taking blood pressure - no laughing matter!
[/size]CONCLUSION: Laughing has an acute effect on systolic blood pressure. Patients should not be encouraged to laugh when their blood pressure is being measured.

Savvy_Sue

Thank you so much Ted for all your posts. It has cheered me up no end to realise that it is just possible that the funny tea bags may have sent my BP soaring, and while I wasn't exactly laughing the first time it was taken I was very happy to have just discovered that my weight was no longer in the obese range!

I'm very unlikely to be laughing when it's taken next week, more likely to burst into tears if a weekend of deprivation and healthy walks hasn't had any effect. But I think I'm going to ask the nurse not to tell me what the first reading is - they usually take two - and not to talk to me about why I'm having it done but to discuss the weather, what we did over the weekend - even the Royal Wedding for crying out loud! - in an attempt to distract me and keep me Calm, Relaxed, Unstressed. But I detest the equipment the nurses use at our surgery: it's one of those new fangled machines and the cuff is really painful. When I mentioned this to the nurse she said "A lot of people say that but I tried it on myself and I didn't think it was too bad." Hello? Pain is relative! Maybe you have a higher pain threshold than most people! Plus you know what is going on!

Elona I will head off and look for the relaxation tips as well, although as you can imagine it's quite hard to switch off and forget this hanging over me! Headed into Boots and spent my points on stress-reducing shower gel and the like ...

Oh and thank you too Joe Bloggs, I will look at that site another day however as I feel all netted out and I don't really want to know what's in chocolate, I like it too much!

Luis

There is such a concept as White Coat Syndrome which we were taught about when I trained as a nurse (a long time ago now) - which sounds a little relevant in your case.

We were also taught not to take BP for at least 20 mins after someone had a hot drink, cigarette etc as this causes a temporary rise in BP, also, if you have had to walk to get to the surgery / clinic, make sure you have had at least 20 mins to return to your base rate.

I agree with your idea about chatting with the nurse - and I also agree that the electronic sphyg cuffs are incredibly painful. Ask her if she has a manual sphyg, and explain that you are stressed enough as it is without worrying about the 'nip' of the cuff lol.

Best of Luck,

Luis.

Savvy_Sue

Thanks Luis, another brilliant site to explore. :T :A

I was aware of white coat syndrome: had heard your BP would usually be lower if taken by a nurse than by a doctor! I have to be at the surgery quite early (for me) on Monday but will try to get out the door in time to sit around for longer than I did last time. Or drive up, only I was going to walk as much as possible over the week, so maybe DH drives me and abandons me. I will ask about the sphyg: I am just worried that I will get stressed out if I have to argue the case with anyone. However, on Tuesday we have a nurse and doctor at work, I am sure if I ask them nicely they will take my BP and as they are sympathetic friends I think it should be lower. It will be interesting to find out, anyway. If it is still high then I guess I just have to accept that it is high, and do something about it.

Another thought has just popped into my addled brain: I was given three choices of treatment, and this surgery is the most radical. If I start telling myself that it really doesn't matter how long the op is postponed and see this as a chance to sort out all my other niggling health problems, I think that will help. I'd just got it into my head that NOW was the best time, and it was all worked out, and I was all psyched up, and suddenly, boom, no, it's too dangerous! But what's changed? Nothing really.

Joe_Bloggs

Driving to a doctors appointment and finding somewhere to park will elevate blood pressure. The dread of a parking parking ticket, fear of theft/break in etc also adds to the level .
To be a valid predictor of your bp prior to operation ask for the pre-op 'medication'. You won't get it! I was so relaxed I did not care before my last op, What did they give me all those years ago ?

These days you have to make an effort to improve your health to expect to be considered for treatment. It may help your chances of survival and assist recovery if you can get your self in shape. Mild excercise has been recently touted as an alternative to anti-depressants. Don't change any medication on my sayso and don't join a gym or drastically change excercise regime without your doctors approval.
My mum needed a doctors note to attend the gym given her medical history.

Caffeine can accelerate the take up of certain drugs or block their effectiveness. It might be wise to avoid it if advised to do so.

J_B.

Savvy_Sue

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

Driving to a doctors appointment and finding somewhere to park will elevate blood pressure. The dread of a parking parking ticket, fear of theft/break in etc also adds to the level .

Fortunately not in our case: surgery has a car park, with plenty of off-street parking around if it's full. However I have just remembered that Monday is the first day back at school, and the school is almost next to the surgery, so it will be chaos on the road!

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

To be a valid predictor of your bp prior to operation ask for the pre-op 'medication'. You won't get it! I was so relaxed I did not care before my last op, What did they give me all those years ago?

:rotfl:

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

These days you have to make an effort to improve your health to expect to be considered for treatment. It may help your chances of survival and assist recovery if you can get your self in shape. Mild excercise has been recently touted as an alternative to anti-depressants. Don't change any medication on my sayso and don't join a gym or drastically change excercise regime without your doctors approval.
My mum needed a doctors note to attend the gym given her medical history.

The frustrating thing is that no-one told me 6 months ago - when I saw the registrar - that I should get my BP checked! Nor was any concern expressed about my weight! Which has since gone down - I'm still overweight, but not as much as I was.

I have seen a GP - not my own - a couple of times since I opted for the surgery, for coughs and chest infections and the like, and no reference has been made to the fact that I'm waiting for surgery so wouldn't it be a good idea to check I'm fit? I'm not on any medication, I wasn't depressed but there's a serious risk I will be soon, because I KNOW I'm stressed right now!

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

Caffeine can accelerate the take up of certain drugs or block their effectiveness. It might be wise to avoid it if advised to do so.

Oh, the caffeine's gone, and the salt, and there's lavendar all over the place even though I don't like the smell, and I'm off for healthy walks every day! I'm relaxing for all I'm worth, although it's a bit hard at times!

Thanks for your tips!

JC67

I've read somewhere (but can't remember where) that celery is good for lowering blood pressure.

I had high blood pressure when I was pregnant and it really made a difference which cuff they used - if your upper arm is over a certain measurement then they should use a large cuff. I agree that the machines they use are really painful (and I have quite a high pain threshold!)

elona

Savvy Sue

I posted the tip on the "I Wanna" lose weight thread - it seems velvetglove found it very helpful:):):)