Blood pressure is a key sign of how healthy your heart is. Doctors usually check it while you are sitting calmly in their office. But new research shows this may not give the full picture of your heart health.
A major study presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions in 2023 found that high blood pressure while lying flat could also be a warning sign. This discovery gives us a new way to think about how blood pressure works and how it affects our heart.
The study was led by Duc M. Giao, a medical student from Harvard Medical School. He and his team studied the health records of more than 11,000 adults who took part in a research project between 1987 and 1989. These adults had their blood pressure checked while lying down, and researchers followed their health for almost 30 years.
The results were surprising. About 16% of the people had high blood pressure while lying down, even though their blood pressure looked normal when they were sitting.
Over the years, those with high blood pressure—whether sitting or lying—had a higher chance of getting heart diseases like heart failure, stroke, and coronary heart disease. They also had a higher risk of dying early.
Even more interesting, people who only had high blood pressure while lying down faced the same dangers. This means that just checking blood pressure while sitting might miss warning signs in some people.
Giao says that people who are at higher risk for heart disease or stroke should have their blood pressure checked in different positions, including lying down. This could help doctors better understand their patients’ heart health and improve the way they treat high blood pressure—whether someone is resting, working, or even sleeping.
This research focused on people in middle age. It shows that we might need to change how we check blood pressure for this group. Although more studies are needed to see if these results also apply to older adults, the current findings suggest it’s time to expand how we look at blood pressure.
In short, this research challenges the old way of checking blood pressure. It suggests that doctors should also measure blood pressure while people are lying down. A small change like this could help find hidden heart problems earlier and may even save lives.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about How to eat your way to healthy blood pressure and results showing that Modified traditional Chinese cuisine can lower blood pressure.
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