Blood pressure ... hypertension?

[Lozlet]

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice / reassurance....

Just some back history, my BP has always been perfect , never had any issues even through 2 pregnancies .
Last year , was extremely stressful my father passed away and I got married within 3 months of each other and didn't have chance to catch my breath, within this time frame it was picked up my blood pressure was elevated which sent me into a health anxiety rabbit hole ....
Fast forward 6 months and my doctor wasn't too concerned and just told me to keep an eye on it.
I monitored it and the doctor said the readings were elevated but not terrible so to measure again which I'm currently doing .

My question is , if I had true hypertension would readings be consistently high ?
As when I take it first thing in the morning the readings aren't too bad , not perfect but I'm happy with them rough 120/83 but then come to evening and it's considerably high 135/95 sometimes higher 140/100 but it soons comes down
Could this really just be from stress / anxiety as I'm working myself up thinking I'm ok the way out 😔😑
I am trying to relax , I've cut out caffeine and eat reasonably well ...

I have high blood pressure my readings156/103 no matter when I took it I'm now on medication,I'm not over weight I'm size 8/10 don't drink alcohol or caffeine eat healthy t

I see , so with this in mind , I'm inclined the doctor won't treat me for high BP as clearly I'm a stress head and that's why it's higher at the end of the day lol 😂
Obviously I'm not a doctor but this would make sense ?

How high does it go OP?

Mine is higher at the end of the day as well. I was on several tablets and then stopped one, and am measuring it regularly to see if I can continue stopping that or if I shoudl restart.

And also it varies hugely even in the same sitting. I am in the exact same spot, don't move, don't adjust the cuff, nothing, just waiting for a minute or so and doing it again, and I get readings anywhere between 103 and 138 on top, and 75-85 on the bottom. I know they say to average them but really it wouldn't give very accurate results if I did (but I know they'll tell me that anyway as they always do, totally disparate readings that average out to being fine, and they say that's fine then, no problem).

So it's quite hard to know whether you should be on tablets or not. Also in my case, the surgery only lets you see a nurse about things like blood pressure checks, and if she says it's fine, that's about as far as you get. So you might have to press if you want to discuss it with a doctor.

Ah, I see you have posted.

Mine is fine first thing, and then goes up so that during the day when I am working it will be 140+ over 90+, so now I am meds for it to bring it down. No amount of exercise, heathy eating etc helped.

If yours is doing the same discuss with your GP. They'll want you to monitor over a week to see if there is a pattern.

Take it first thing and in the evening too. Take it 3x after sitting quietly for 5 mins and record the lowest reading. Don't take it after eating or needing a wee.

Take an average reading over a week.

Those figures aren’t too bad at all, though. I’d be happy with those.

Thank you for your replies , some evenings it's within normal range but generally it's higher that it should be of an evening 135/95 ISH on average.
I'm currently recording my BP for one week so once this is done I'll call and make an appointment with doc to discuss my concerns

If your GP is concerned they'll put you on a 24 hour monitor. What they want to see is the average measurement over 24 hours, and they also want to see that it drops overnight. Mine didn't, which is why I'm on medication. Mine's genetic, it was always textbook perfect even during three pregnancies, then during perimenopause up it went.

@DramaAlpaca is suspect this will be the next step for me the 24 hr thing as it's a common pattern for mine to be fine in the morning and higher in the evening and I'm concerned as to what it's getting to while I'm at work

I have chronic hypertension, I am on medication to keep mine at my target of 120/70 or as close to as that as possible.

@CandiedPrincess I would be overjoyed to see those readings in the BP machine !
I do suspect I am overthinking all of this and part of it is anxiety 😑

There's other things you need to take into consideration - I have strong family history of heart disease - heart attack, cardiac arrest and stroke (and have a mild issue myself discovered incidentally!) and also my mother has vascular dementia, so because of those risk factors, it's crucial my blood pressure is kept down as much as possible. If you have any risk factors like this - your GP should definitely take it seriously. (I am on statins as a precautionary measure too)

You need a 24 monitor to be sure as a pp has mentioned. Given how stressed you are you could be getting heightened readings because you’re getting anxious every time you put the monitor on. I have high blood pressure and the only thing that brings it down is medication (measurements a lot higher than yours though, don’t worry)

Just to add though as people are talking about, the 24 hour monitor thing was utter tosh. It failed more than it actually read and recorded an average of 110/65 which the cardiac nurse wrote back to my GP and said was great and I needed no further treatment. It was completely inaccurate!

Thank you all , my gut it telling me I'm just an anxious mess and need to work on calming myself down .
But I accept either way my BP needs to be lower whether it be lifestyle changes or meds ( both my parents had / have high BP , although I wouldn't say either of them looked after themselves) so I'll still go to the doctors and see what they say and hopefully I don't just get " record it for another week " as this is the third time of doing this !

It's possible that your stress levels are contributing to BP being raised at times.

Do you get out for a decent walk/other exercise, that does help, as do relaxation strategies.

But sometimes there is no explanation. However I wouldn't say your readings are at red alert level either yet.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter what's causing the high blood pressure, the effect on the blood vessels are the same.

Can I ask are you sitting down for 10 minutes before test .

I have hypertension - when I have to do monitoring the advice is don’t take the first reading - wait a couple of minutes and repeat .

I always wonder why they want you to rest lots first, sit very quietly, repeat the measurements and record the lowest etc, and I think I'd rather know what my worst is, in case it's like that most of the day.