Imagine your blood pressure as a swing, rocking back and forth. Turns out, blood pressure readings can really jump around between your doctor visits, says a recent study.
This can be a problem when trying to figure out if your high blood pressure treatment is doing its job.
Yuan Lu, the head of the study and a teacher at Yale School of Medicine, says this makes deciding on the best treatment really hard.
She published the study in a fancy-sounding journal called Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
The Highs and Lows of Blood Pressure
Nearly half of adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure. This means the force of their blood pushing against their blood vessels is too high.
Think of it like having too much air in a balloon. It might burst! And it turns out only 1 in 4 people have their high blood pressure under control.
High blood pressure, left unchecked, can lead to heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, kidney problems, vision loss, and even memory problems.
Bringing the Clinic Home
The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have already warned us that blood pressure can swing between doctor visits. So, they suggest checking your blood pressure at home, too.
But, Lu tells us that not a lot of people are doing this. “Most people treated for high blood pressure are still only relying on office measurements,” she says.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Lu and her team checked out more than 7.7 million blood pressure readings from over 537,218 adults treated in the Yale New Haven Health System.
They found some surprising stuff. The blood pressure readings could swing around 12 mmHg between visits. People with normal blood pressure had smaller swings, but people with really high blood pressure had even bigger ones.
If someone took medicine to lower their high blood pressure by 10 mmHg, around 37% of the time, they’d only see a 5 mmHg drop (or less) at their next visit.
About 25% of the time, there was no drop at all. This means it could take about four doctor visits to be 80% sure that the blood pressure was indeed lower.
Home Sweet Home: A Better Place to Check
Blood pressure readings taken at the doctor’s office could actually be higher than those taken at home, says Dr. Wanpen Vongpatanasin from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
At the doctor’s office, things like feeling nervous or using the wrong size cuff can mess up the readings. But at home, you’re comfortable, relaxed, and there’s less chance of human error.
Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands
To check your blood pressure at home, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology recommend using an automated upper-arm cuff that’s just the right size for your arm.
You can find a good device to use from the American Medical Association website. When taking your blood pressure, avoid exercise, smoking, and caffeine half an hour before.
Empty your bladder, stay still and quiet for at least five minutes, and make sure your arm is at heart level.
Do this twice in the morning before taking any medications or eating breakfast, and again in the evening before dinner.
Lu understands not everyone can afford a home blood pressure monitor. But you can go to a health clinic for more checks or use a machine at your local pharmacy.
She says, “If a patient just measures once at the clinic, it only gives a snapshot of their blood pressure control. We really need other measures to see how accurate this is.”
So remember, the fight against high blood pressure isn’t a one-shot deal. It’s a dance! And to win, we need to keep a close eye on the rhythm of the swings.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about diet that could help reduce high blood pressure, diabetes, and this gum disease may double your risk of high blood pressure.
For more information about nutrition and blood pressure, please see recent studies about probiotics could help reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol. and results show that Turmeric could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
The study was published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
