High Blood Pressure!

[Zapranoth]

Here is my understanding of things about outpatient blood pressure management.

Your arteries mainly care about what the area under the curve is.

If your blood pressure is high only during brief episodes of time (ie, at doctors' visits, at the dentist) but are NOT high other times, that's not typically worth treating with medication.

If your blood pressure is high most of the time, that needs to be reduced.

Lifestyle changes, in all but the extreme cases, can reduce systolic BP by 5-7 points or so, diastolic slightly less.  If you drink programmer quantities of caffeine, elimination of that alone can reduce blood pressure quite a bit more than that.  =)  Many other factors influence blood pressure, and most of what causes hypertension is not understood by current science.  If you're really overweight, reduction of that can make some difference.  Some people are salt-sensitive with regard to hypertension, and some are not, but salt reduction is given by many as blanket advice for hypetension (though it's of dubious value in some cases).

If you're diabetic, your blood pressure should average <130 over <80.  If not diabetic, <140 over <80 (that's less than all those values, not equal to any of them or greater).

Consider getting a home monitor (ie, an Omron brand, or else look up on Consumer Reports or the like about brands) for your blood pressure and collecting data before you see your doctor.  Collect daily readings at varying times of the day, and write them down with times.  Get an automated cuff that reads at your arm level, not, I repeat, not your wrist or finger.  Bring that automated cuff with you to the doctor's office, and have its reading double-checked against his nurse's (or his, or her) reading.  Make sure your cuff isn't too tight; doublecheck the fit per its instructions.  If the cuff is too tight (if your arm is too big for it) your readings will be read as too high.   If you have a friend who can reliably take a blood pressure (was trained how to do it and is experienced in it), that is preferable to a machine.

Collect a few weeks of data and then bring those things to your doc.  It will be a much more useful visit that way, and your doc will be impressed with how you went to the big ol' internet and came to his office with common sense and good information, instead of lunacy and herbs.   

[Ash]

I went to the free clinic here in town this morning and saw a doctor about my high blood pressure.
I'd never been to that clinic before and was expecting some run down place but it was actually very nice.
It's a newer building and all of the staff were very professional.
And the great thing was that I didn't have to pay a cent.

The nurse saw me first and took my BP.
From what I gather, the average BP reading is supposed to be something like 120 over 80. (not 100% sure on that)

Mine was something like 120 over 115!  

I saw the doctor and she gave me a physical exam and asked me questions about my diet and general lifestyle.
The first thing she recommended was lifestyle change.  Getting out and exercising more etc...

She then prescribed to me a month's supply of Lisinopril. (an ACE inhibitor)
An interesting fact about the drug is that it is "derived from the venom of the jararaca, a Brazilian pit viper".

I have to take one pill a day and then go back to the clinic in 2 weeks to see how well the medication is working.

It's kind of scary being only 34 years old and having sky high blood pressure.
I'm definitely going to take her advice and start exercising more.
Maybe if I can dig up some extra cash, I'll buy a mountain bike and hit the local bike trails.  

[Allhallowsday]

The nurse saw me first and took my BP.
From what I gather, the average BP reading is supposed to be something like 110 over 80. (not 100% sure on that)

Mine was something like 120 over 115!   

It's kind of scary being only 34 years old and having sky high blood pressure.

Your diastolic is quite high, but I don't think "sky high..."  I'm older than you, have stayed trim, I get good exercise, but I still take a wee white pill each morn.  Here's hoping the reading was just a fluke.   

I know our Raffine will be fine.   

[Patient7]

Raffine,

Maybe your dentist just had a tee time soon and wanted to get out of there quick, so he lied to you to get you out of there.

[ER]

106/77/55 BPM. If I wasn't destined to be murdered I'd fuggin live forever.

[Alex]

One of the guys I work with, Kev had worryingly high blood pressure. The medics gave him a monitor to wear that would sound an alarm whenever his BP was getting too high. Of course, we all done our best to wind Kev up and see if we could set the alarm off.

[chefzombie]

i was so stressed out on monday, i actually had a normal person's  BP reading! scared the crap out of the pharmacist, who knows my normal reading roughly 25 points lower than regular people. it was fine today though.