High Blood Pressure readings at work and doctors. Anyone else suffer with it.

[anastasia74]

I'm 47 by the way. It was 166 over 100 and then 165 over 98 at doctors. I am worrying now. I've had headache all afternoon, but also had a lot of headaches last week, so can't say it's just psychosymatic or whatever it is. He said I'd be getting a 24 hour device to monitor whats happening just to make sure its not just that I'm having a bad day. He said don't worry, but it's difficult not to think about it.

Can't understand it. I'm slim-ish, don't smoke, swim, don't drink vast amounts, good diet, low salt. Any experiences of this.

Well something's setting your heart racing!
Worrying won't help in the least so wait until you've had your 24 hour monitor and see what your GP says.
You're of an age where hormones may be playing havoc and your GP will really be the best person to advise.
Chin up :)

It could just be genetic, I'm afraid. Mine was going up between 140-160 over 80-90, a couple of years ago (I was nearly 50 at the time) and yes, I was in a stressful situation, but even so it was 'borderline' on the 24 hour trace so I opted for a low dose meds.

I've been on them since, with no side effects and perfect 120/70 bp - no more worrying

Just so's you know, if the 24 hour trace says so, its not the end of the world - bp is nearly always controllable.

I'm also slim, don't smoke, don't drink, good diet and run around enough to constitute a bit of exercise but....my dad has been on bp meds for 20 years, my uncle for 10, and my grandfather died of a heart attack (slim non smoker) aged 72 because he probably had undiagnosed high bp.

The good news these days for those of us with genetic high bp (which can't be controlled with diet/lifestyle changes) is that it is truly manageable - my father is now 85 and fit as a flea, so meds do work!

To add - yes, hormones changing can also play a part.

Drinking beetroot juice brings it down pretty dramatically.

DD1 has this - her GP has diagnosed "white coat syndrome", and the nurse needs her to take her BP twice a day for a couple of weeks each time she wants her pill prescription renewed. No medical reason for high BP, just getting herself all stressed at the thought of doctors .

I get that because I find it really painful. For some reason my BP is extremely hard to "hear" so I've had a lifetime of doctors and nurses getting really cross because they think they're doing something wrong.

Then they do it over and over and over again with my arm hurting more and more, the docs being stressed and me being scared.

Can you buy beetroot juice in cartons or do you juice your own :o

Mine is always high when taken at drs/hospital/starting at the gym but was always normal when read at home. I am a huge blusher and get hot and bothered quite quickly and take ages to cool down. Always wondered if that was part of the hb problem.

I have high BP which was controlled with mess for a while, but I'm just low enough to be off them now. I was 30 when I was diagnosed (and furious about it due to not being overweight/a smoker/unfit etc) and my consultant had lots of patients younger than me. It is unfortunately one of those things that can affect anyone for no discernible reason but it can easily be treated with meds. It's not a reflection on you or your lifestyle.

The 24 hour monitor is irritating - try to have it for a day off work and make sure you get some tlc afterwards. My arm was really bruised after I had mine.

Please don't worry, this can easily be managed!

Friskymare, that's an interesting thought - I too am a blusher, get hot and red ludicrously easily etc. Veerrrrrry interesting. You can buy cartons, or bottles of James White organic beetroot juice, from Sainsbo or Waitrose, is the bizz. Yum, I love it.

Swatchdog, re your first line, I only wish mine could be controlled by mess since I live in one.

Thanks so much everyone for the words of reasurrance. I'm definately going to try the beetroot juice, never heard of that before. I'll try and not think about it too much. Interesting about hormones playing a part - at least it can be controlled ok if it does come to meds.

Autocorrect idiot here!

One thing re the tablets if you end up on them - there are huge numbers of them and you can find one without side effects, though it may take time. Don't let the doctor fob you off with ones that don't suit you properly because they're cheaper to the NHS.

Agree with Swatchdog - loads to choose from. I'm on Ramipril, which works beautifully for me.

Re the 24 hour thingy, it IS a pain, not least because one tends to lie awake expecting the next beep-inflate cycle, which isn't great for keeping bp down Mine had ridiculously high spikes, as it made me anxious in itself - but it did come down when I slept, which apparently is the most important thing.

What I'm trying to say is, don't worry too much about the 24 hour thingy - it causes white coat anxiety as much as visiting the docs, ime, but GPs know that and will think accordingly

I'm busy monitoring mine at home at the moment, and it's interesting that it's always lower later in the day. So if I go to the doc's at 6pm, it'll be fine; if I have a morning appointment, it'll be rubbish.

thanks swatchdog, I'll bear that in mind for future, I know everything comes down to money. Just hope that I can sleep with the monitor thing - sounds a pain in the @$%#. Bought some beetroot juice today and drank half a carton of it. It was quite sickly but I convinced myself it was doing me good. Just hope it does the trick, or helps even a little bit.

My ddad has "White coat hypertention" which basically means if a doctor comes at him to measure his bp his bp shoots up.

He's bought his own bp monitor and will put it on at his choice of time and lie back on the bed for ten minutes before using it.

What started it off was they took bp at work one time and he'd just cycled in, run up the stairs and they took it and said it was very high

Yes, and they take no notice if you say you've just done that!