Know your numbers

[idun]

Apparently in the UK it is 'know your blood pressure numbers' this week.

I know mine, had it taken twice two weeks ago and averaged 100/67 so a bit low.

 

No idea why mine is low, I am, shall we say, well proportioned and I know plenty of svelte people who are fit and have high blood pressure.

 

Do any of you keep an eye on your blood pressure?

[Tancrède]

[quote user="idun"]Do any of you keep an eye on your blood pressure?[/quote]

Yes, or at least I do always ask the doctor to take mine on the extremely rare occasions when I see him  -  about once in five years  -  and he seems to quite enjoy it.  But the modern machine is rather disappointing, and not nearly as much fun as pumping up the column of mercury.

And the reading is always depressingly normal, and never provides a suitable peg upon which he might justifiably hang a speech upon the evils of smoking.  But I do walk 10 - 20 km each day, so perhaps that helps…

[Clarkkent]

120/87 a couple of months ago - in a doctor's surgery so possibility of white coat syndrome. But it has been around that for years.

Could you be dehydrated? I heard an item on the radio a few weeks ago suggesting that if people don't have a sufficient liquid intake there is a chance that their kidneys may be removing fluid from their blood and reducing the total quantity of plasma. But I'm sure we have appropriately qualified people on this forum who can comment on this.

[cooperlola]

In spite of all the tramuas of the last few years and 30 to 40 a day (I exagerate a little!) until my accident, the nurse still described my numbers as "tension jeune fille".  At the moment, of course, it gets taken every couple of days or so.

[suein56]

[quote user="idun"]Do any of you keep an eye on your blood pressure?[/quote]

Yes, on doctor's orders I have to check it twice a day at the moment - morning and night - after the arthritis I have had for 35 years suddenly decided to go into overdrive last March and reduced me to a quivering wreck. My average at the moment is 120/73, helped by half a little white pill.

Delighted to say that now I am not quite the wreck I was 6 months ago.

Sue

[sueyh]

Until I moved to France I could not remember the last time I had my blood pressure taken and had no idea what reading was normal.  Now every three months it is taken by my Dr, at the same time as he checks my heart and pulse.  Mind you perhaps he  is checking for a pulse!!  Brilliant service. 

Suey

[NormanH]

Of course the Doctors in France are paid by the act, that is each time they see you, so they tend to take blood pressure etc as an excuse. It could be done equally well ( and more cheaply) by a Nurse, and referred on if there was a problem.

This pressure to consume medical services is a major cause of the financial state that the French health service finds itself in.

Obviously blood pressure needs to be monitored, as it can be a major factor in diseases such as stroke and heart problems, but my point is that could be done in a more cost-effective way.

What seems a good service may just be a way for Doctors to milk the system.

[cooperlola]

Hmm.  When I was in the UK, like Sue's, my doc' never took my blood pressure.  Here it's done as a matter of routine during a consultation but I've never had or been given a doc's appointment here just for this - it's always as part of a visit for something I need, so I doubt it puts the cost up (they don't charge any more, let's face it!)  But perhaps some people visit their docs just for this?

[NormanH]

It wouldn't put the cost up, no, but  this is all mine does most of the time, and won't give repeat prescriptions either, which also means a monthly visit even if (for once) all is otherwise OK.

I find that at the higher levels there are some excellent practitioners, but at the basic level they are little more than paramedics.

My most serious illnesses have all been discovered either because I have asked to see a specialist whom I knew of,( various cancers)  or because of an emergency (phlebitis/stroke etc)

[woolybanana]

I have a small, wrist blood pressure meter which I collated with the doc's tester a while ago, and take a reading every so often. If it began to fall outside 125/75 ish, give or take a bit, regularly, then I would pop along and see him. It is controlled with Amlodipine 10mg though since weight loss, I am wondering if it could be reduced to 5mg.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Gengulphus"]And the reading is always depressingly normal,
[/quote]be more depressing if it was abnormal.[:)]

[suein56]

[quote user="NormanH"]It wouldn't put the cost up, no, but  this is all mine does most of the time, and won't give repeat prescriptions either, which also means a monthly visit even if (for once) all is otherwise OK.[/quote]

Don't be so hard on your GP Norman as he is hopefully being so insistent on seeing you every month because of all the medical ups and downs you have had.

Mine is the opposite ie laid back in the extreme; I only seem to make progress when my own Doc is away and her brilliant remplacant is on duty.

[quote user="woolybanana"]I have a small, wrist blood pressure meter

which I collated with the doc's tester a while ago, and take a reading

every so often.[/quote]

Brilliant machines ... though it took me a while to get used to taking my BP every morn and evening.

Sue

[Will]

I think this varies a lot between GP practices. Mine (talking England rather than France at present) is always checked if I see the GP, though maybe that's because I take medication to keep it under control. Routine checks like BP monitoring are generally undertaken by the practice nurse rather than having to make a GP appointment specifically for it - the doc only gets involved if the numbers are outside the correct range. The surgery I was with previously had a 'check it yourself' machine for use by patients, and encouraged people to use it. Most pharmacies will do a check for you.

In France there was just the one doc, no nurses, not even a secretary or receptionist, so a BP check was generally part of any consultation. There seemed to be an unwritten rule that you went out of the surgery with even more things wrong with you -generally picked up in the customary visual examination - than you thought you had when you walked in. Maybe there was an 'arrangement' between the doc and the pharmacy.

Idun's BP does sound a bit low, knowing she is of a 'certain age', but there could be many reasons for this. It's natural for it to rise as we get older, so it shouldn't really fall. Mine is nicely low at present, as is my heart rate - according to the gym machines my estimated VO2 max hovers between the 'excellent' and 'elite' bands, suggesting I should be joining Chancer on a half-marathon, but in my case it has a lot more to do with medication than actual fitness levels.

[pachapapa]

 collated with the doc's tester

hopefully a close correlation[:)]

[idun]

I think that mine is normal for me, it's always been on the low side, but that ofcourse could change. Cholestrol normal too, considering the amount of butter and cream I can consume. We are all so different.

[bubbles]

It seems to be an excellent idea to take blood pressure readings whenever we visit the doctor.

I've been told that you can have dangerously high blood pressure without knowing it or feeling any symptoms.

Preventative medicine.

By the way, other half is desperate not to have to take medication for his high blood pressure.

He tried one type which caused side effects.

Doc wants him to try another but at present he is taking his readings three times a day in an attempt to convince our GP that medication isn't necessary.

At times the bottom reading can rise to 100 (which is scary).

On the plus side, it can also drop to around 76.

He takes his readings 3 times a day at the moment.

We think it just varies according to his stress/excitement levels (he is married to me - these can increase frequently!)

Any thoughts from anyone out there?

[NormanH]

Low salt diet

No alcohol

Lose weight. ( 10-20%)

These three things (imposed by circumstances rather than by any effort of mine) have allowed me to come off  a high dose of Aprovel plus a diuretic

[Chancer]

I dont even know what the numbers mean or what they should be, every time mine is taken they tell me the figures with a happy expression expecting me to be the same but I always say is that good or bad?

They always tell me very good but what is good and bad?

Not that I can remember any of them as they were meaningless too me, I do recall being told that my recovery heart rate and BP after the final session in the gym at my last stay was close to that of an olympic rower, I thought they were just winding me up, it would be good to know what these figures should be but i dont want to be wearing a monitor, I might get white coat syndrome.

At the camp we all wore heart rate monitors which I did find really useful and I will buy one myself when they are on promo, I was pleased to see that even a moderate hike would keep me in the aerobic zone even though it didnt seem at all strenuous, i was however very worried that my pulse did not seem to drop at all after exercise let alone within 5 minutes, in fact the only time it seemed to go down was if I lay down and meditated or after the hypno-therapy sessions (very relaxing) A friend who is a sports teacher once told me to consult my doctor when she saw my readings after we had been cycling. I saw a dramatic difference in this after losing weight and becoming fit, i dont even need a monitor to tell me I can feel it within a minute of stopping running although I do have to take control of my breathing for a while to make it happen.

[Chrissie]

As far as I understand, the top reading should be 11 or 12 (or 110,120 in old money) for a "good" result. 

10 or below and they will watch you. Ditto for 13-14.

15 and above, our doc told OH he would be hospitalised straight away.

BUT, we are all different.  My pressure has always been low and still drops down to 10 on occasion.

Chrissie (81)

 

[Sprogster]

A recently published medical paper has suggested that blood pressure readings taken in the Dr's surgery are often misleading, being elavated due to patient nervousness, or what is called white coat syndrome. As a result some patients could have been put unnecessarily on high blood pressure medication.

Therefore, best practice is to get a patient to take a series of readings at home on their own machine, which can be bought very cheaply these days in the UK.

140/90 is borderline hypertension.

[Rose]

[quote user="Sprogster"]A recently published medical paper has suggested that blood pressure readings taken in the Dr's surgery are often misleading, being elavated due to patient nervousness, or what is called white coat syndrome. As a result some patients could have been put unnecessarily on high blood pressure medication.

Therefore, best practice is to get a patient to take a series of readings at home on their own machine, which can be bought very cheaply these days in the UK.[/quote]

Sproster - the medication I take to supress the cancer can result in high blood pressure so I have to have mine checked each month. 

My GP has suggested we have a machine at home and I take my BP every day at the same time... he says that if I notice any changes I should contact him.  When I'm at home my BP is always around 110-120/65-75 and my pulse normally around the 60-70 mark... when I'm at the doctors it's always around 130/80 and pulse 70+-80... my doctor laughs as he thinks I'm frightened of him... it's good to know I'm not alone.

[idun]

If mine is higher at the Dr's then I am in trouble, I think.

I'm lucky I can relax to almost sleep while they are taking it, so I don't think that I have white coat syndrome. A trick I learned to do at the dentists when I had some particularly bad problems resulting in needing a couple of operations.