General Chat

Just wondering if anyone who uses a home BP monitor can answer a Q for me please?

It seems from all advice I can find that the BP should be taken 3 times (at not less than 2 minute intervals), then the 1st reading should be ignored and the 2nd and 3rd readings averaged.

The bit I don't understand why is - why is the 1st reading ignored? Does anyone know the answer to this?

Thanks

Mary

Hi Shane

Thanks for replying. I first came across the *measure 3 times* on a HBP user forum - I'd not come across it before, and same as you, my booklet doesn't say anything about doing 3 readings.

I then googled and found several websites for HBP, all of which give the same advice, but none of them explain why the 1st reading should be ignored........so I'm still mystified. lol.

I'm quite happy to ignore the 1st reading as it's always much higher than the following 2 or 3 LOL.

Mary

The first time you could be a bit anxious and the reading could give a higher figure. By the second and third you could be more relaxed and this would produce a more accurate figure.

I think it's because when you first put it on you may be tense and so more likely to have a higher reading. by taking three readings, discarding the first and averaging the other two may give a truer reading

I personally hate doing it so get worse each time it's done.

I also hate doing it TootyFruity, scares me rigid!, but I am determined to prove to my GP that my HBP is white coat syndrome and so come off these awful tablets.

But knowing my GP, unless I can give him a definitive answer to the question of ignoring the 1st reading (which is always higher) then I feel sure he will say that the 1st reading is the one to go by.........but not according to the British Hypertension Society and the Mayo Clinic it's not! LOL

Also strange, the first few times I took my BP, I had high reading followed by lower then lower still for the 3rd one. But yesterday, I had high, low then the 3rd one higher than the 2nd, most odd.

Mary

Thank you Robert, that makes sense.


LOL @ Shane

The other day I had: 142/75, 121/76 + 114/70 - ignoring the 1st - = 117.5/73

Yesterday I had: 145/74, 128/76 + 131/77 = 129.5/76.5

At doctor's I normally have somewhere in the region of 140 - 150/85-100 - hence the tablet's :-(( but I really don't think I have HBP at all, more like WCS!

I even had the 24 hour machine from the doctor a few weeks ago.........and even with that every time it went off I started to panic.......how bad am I??!! LOL

Mary

Last week-end my blood pressure read 178 over 100.I had a really bad head and stayed in bed.I am on blood pressure tabs of Losartan potassium.Last week tha doctor found i have a extra noise in my heart?Waiting now for hospital.Was told to get a monitor to keep check.
Annie

Remember to take your blood pressure sitting down, and after you have been seated for a few minutes. Also, NEVER take it just after a hot drink as the monitor will give a high reading.

Oh dear Grannie, I hope you don't have to wait too long for hospital appointment. Try not to worry about it though, easier said than done I know. :-(((

I've been on Atenolol for about 18 months and GP is now saying he wants to add another 2 tabs (ACE inhibitor and diuretic), at which point I thought *no way pal* and started to look in to the subject of HBP.

It makes very interesting reading too I can tell you. I found out today that prolonged use of Atenolol can cause diabetes - huh, didn't see that in their list of side effects in the info sheet in the packet!!!

Mary

I have White coat syndrome. I hate going to the doctors and having to sit in a waiting room full of sick people, so already blood pressure rising, don't want to catch anything else. Then he is running late and I am always the first appointment of the day and more sick people are arriving. Not good for my blood pressure. Then you go in and he puts the cuff on and it's getting tighter and tighter and I can feel me getting more anxious with every squeeze of the ball to pump it up. Telling myself to breath slowly, it hurts my arm but hey let's ignore that keep breathing slowly. He takes a reading and says let's do that again just to be sure, practically having palpitations, my body is screaming run away by head saying breath slowly it'll soon be over. But then I don't want him looking at his computer screen where it says I missed my last blood test. Oops. More Anxiety. It's really high make an appointment to see the nurse who will fit a machine for you to wear for 48 hours. Oh no I have to run the gauntlet of the waiting room again. Machine did prove that it went really high when visiting hospital and Doctors even when I wasn't the patient

TootyFruity

I really really understand what you're saying, I'm exactly the same. :-((( Which is why he suggested I have the machine (although I only had it for 24 hours), but that just made me anxious (understatement there, I was in a state of panic for 24 hours).

The most annoying bit for me was that when I went back the following day, the nurse took the reading from the machine and said it was 136/76, and absolutely fine.......so I went home happy.......until the next day when I spoke to the doctor. He said - how about this! "the machine's aren't 100% accurate and my BP is more than what the nurse told me"

"The machine's aren't accurate" - they cost over £3K - they blinking well ought to be accurate at that price!! I might suggest he buys them for £30 in B**ts in future, as they are accurate LOL

Mary

I'm not sure you should be measuring more than once a week, the more you measure the more worry etc, etc!

Mine is low 58 -60 bottom figure, pulse is slow , in fact I am just grinding slowly to a halt !

I agree with you Lindsey* - I had the monitor for over a week before I plucked up the courage to use it.........and frightened myself silly at the reading, so didn't use it again for another week! Then I found the info about the 3 readings so tried it again and when I saw the 2nd and 3rd readings were so much lower than the 1st I felt a bit better! LOL

I'm only doing mine every other day because I want to take the results to my doctor in a couple of weeks time, and I want to have plenty to show him, so that he can't say that they're isolated results. ;-))

Yours is pretty low isn't it?

Mary

On the continent they treat it but here they don't bother, so when I stand up quickly the room spins, like being drunk for free !

I figure I'm past my sell by anyway !

Hi Lindsey*

I just had a google - found lots of info about low bp. I didn't realise it could be such a problem. :-(( My grandmother had low bp all her life but it didn't give her any symptoms, so she was quite lucky there. She was just one of those people born with a natural low bp.

I guess if your doctor has ruled out any underlying medical condition and the room spinning is the only symptom you have it's probably better to not take any meds for it? On the plus side........you can put salt on your chips ;-))

Mary

I only take my blood pressure occasionally or when I feel it may be a bit high then i try to relax beforehand.

My doctor's surgery offer me a "quiet" room to wait in but I have never used it because then people may think I'm contagious I sit as far away as possible to other people yet they come and sit next to me, even when the waiting room is practically empty. Why do that? Do they want what I have?

TootyFruity,

I also sit as far away from other people as well lol.........I can't be doing with being near to all those sick people, I don't want to catch whatever they've got! I've found the best way to stop people sitting close to me is to open a window behind me, seems people don't like the cold! lol.

The surgery I go to has 2 waiting areas, the one upstairs is okay, but the one downstairs is awful.....always packed *shudders at the thought*.

But the worst part of the downstairs one, is that they have a TV screen in there.......and it's always playing *how to spot the symptoms of a stoke* oh please, give me a break!!! I'm stressed enough about being there without having to endure that as well.......don't they get the message that I, like most people, are quite happy in our ignorant bliss!

Mary

I think that "the trend" is more important than individual results,
you should be sitting straight, not crosslegged,the cuff needs to be at aprox heart level, and the testing forearm resting on a table or cushion, same place every time,,,

no talking or moving while the test is in progress.

Bob

I too suffer White coat symdrom Dr. actually has it written on my notes, my blood pressure can go to 200 over 80, he used to say relax, and I would say it will just go higher, which it did. I moniter mine at home, and can be as low as 114 over 80 we now have an understanding, a quite room would not work for me would still know it was the doctors lol
Carol

I think the best thing in the doctor's waiting room is the notice that says if you have flu like symptoms or sick do not come to the surgery. Now if only patients stayed away when they were ill and only go when they were healthy perhaps I would be okay. Lol

I too have White coat syndrome on my notes along with needle phobic. I keep expecting to see neurotic flash on the screen too lol