How to make blood pressure appear lower.

Hey people,

You know they test your blood pressure when you have a pill checkup? Well mine always goes really high as medical people make me nervous!! Is there anything I can do whilst they're actually measuring bp to make it appear lower (ie its more normal level that it would eb were I not nervous)? I'm thinking something like deep breaths? But maybe one of the med students on here can think of some scientific approach?

Thank you!

Reply 1

Leisure17

You could try and have it measured lying down; it is usually lower then. Try not to rush in at the last minute. Sitting around quietly at the doctor's for 15min or so gives you a chance of lower pressure.

How do you know it is only high at the doctor's? Many people actually suffer from hypertension for years without knowing it. You don't have to be old for that, even children can have it. And taking the pill with hypertension makes it more risky. How high is your blood pressure in numbers (average should not be higher than 120/80mmHg)?

Reply 2

blissy

My mum had a similar problem - was told to eat less salt (she doesn't put any in her food and rarely eats processed food), lose weight etc etc. Turns out she just got incredibly nervous at the doctor's. So they've got some sort of system now where she measures it at home or something.

I had an evil nurse once who got me totally panicked and told me I couldn't have my implant in because my blood pressure was too high. I then went in to see the doctor, she took it and it was fine. If you breathe and concentrate on the number on the machine, I find it always settles. If they're doing it the old-fashioned/proper way just .. breathe! SOrry!

I usually get stressed cause I hate that thing that expands on your arm.

Reply 3

MagicNMedicine

I had the same thing and got referred to the heart unit at the hospital for having abnormally high blood pressure at the age of 20.
They gave me a monitor thing which took my blood pressure over 24 hours including in my sleep, and I had to do it again in 4 months time. When the results went back to my GP it came back in the normal category.

The best thing to do is tell the doctor measuring it that you feel like that. Deep breaths and so on can help up to a point but if you feel nervous your heart will beat faster anyway - it is totally natural. If the doctor has a concern about your blood pressure then you may end up being referred but if it's ok when you're not actively having it tested then the 24 hour monitor will prove that.

Reply 4

quintsy

Yeah, my dad has hypertension and he has a testing monitor at home, and it's always lower at home than at the doctors. The doctor said to him that it's quite common to suffer from "white coat syndrome"- i.e. getting nervous in front of doctors.

If you're just curious as to what your blood pressure is, then you could get a monitor at home, and take it when you're really calm. That, or mention to your doctor what's happening and they should be understanding. It seemed from what the doctor said that it's relatively common.

Good luck! :smile:

Reply 5

MagicNMedicine

he told me I had "white coat syndrome" as well, and I thought he was being offensive!

Reply 6

Leisure17

MagicNMedicine

he told me I had "white coat syndrome" as well, and I thought he was being offensive!

No, it is a common affliction.

Reply 7

randdom

All you can do is try to relax, if your result comes up high ask if you could have one which you have for 24 hours and that will probably come up normal. GP's are aware of so called "white coat syndrome" I have come accross it many times when I have been at the GP surgery as a medical student. However I wouldn't advice that you do anything to get an abnormally low reading for you as there is a reason why you need to have cirtain blood pressure levels for the pill and it is for your own safety.

Reply 8

Scrubs

White coat syndrome is taken into account when your B.P is being taken. The worst that could happen is that you have to go in a number of times to have your B.P taken or wear a continous monitor.

Reply 9

Lib

The only thing that I've really found has helped is having a nurse who understands doing the reading! I was taken off the pill because of high blood pressure, but I think now that maybe it wasn't actually the pill that was doing it after all.

They don't always take my blood pressure now that I get injections instead, but when they do sometimes the doctor uses the manual version rather than the machine because apparently it's more accurate. Maybe ask for that? As well as just trying to stay as calm as possible.

Reply 10

IndieGirl

Ok cheers people, I know I could probably lose a few pounds which would lower it a bit, but my diet is good since I moved to uni...I was just a bit scared I was in the minority of being a young woman with high blood pressure, but I heard once some people's are naturally higher anyway - not through any fault of thier own?

Reply 11

AT82

I used to have high blood preasure so I started watching my sodium intake. It turns out a lot of the packaged food I was eating contained more than 2g a time, which meant I was eating about 12 grams of salt a day.

I have managed to get my salt intake to 7grams a day now and its very easy to do.

A slice of bread contains half a gram of salt for example (0.2g of sodium) so you can see how easy it is to cut back on your salt intake.

Latest

Trending

Articles for you

What your body does to cope with stress in exams

Try out the app

Continue on web

How to make blood pressure appear lower.

Related discussions

Articles for you