My wife did not feel well last year and thought her pulse was going up. I figure I'd reassure her quickly (or notice an issue) with my Note 8.
Unbeknowst to me, some samsung update put the hardware functionality behind some health app that wanted to setup a tracking profile and two factor authentication and my email and my phone and name and details and preferences and goals and 12 point health plan and whatnot.
By the end I was the one with anxiety attack. I'm still livid when I think about it. I'm not a violent or profane man but... I have some thoughts reserved for people who planned, approved and implemented that. Not all evil is big evil. Little evil is evil too (Note for all fellow software engineers here :)
I agree and that's what's my Note 8 used to provide. As I said, some update made the mandatory a health or whatever app require an account, 2fa, and a lot of setup and personal data before it'd let me access the sensor read.
I think I picked up a dedicated unit finger pulse oximeter for like $20.
FWIU Apple Watch is one product with FDA approval as a medical device (ECG Electrocardiogram) for detection of AFib Atrial Fibrillation and Parkinsons.
I did buy the separate $20 sp02 / pulse monitor after that episode. She has an apple watch now but I of course have zero confidence / will not trust the kindness of corporate strangers again to allow me access to my own hardware.
Pulse oximeters will also give low spO2 if your fingertip is cold. In that case, just put your hand/fingers under your armpit for a few seconds to warm them up.
My Apple Watch detected an AFib about a year and a half ago. Was mildly freaked out at the time but glad that I got the alert. Nothing major, thankfully. Was on a mostly plant-based diet (no meat at all) and wasn't getting enough iron. Easy fix.
> Vegan diets tend to be high in dietary fiber, folate, vitamins C and E, potassium, magnesium, and unsaturated fats.[34] However, consuming no animal products increases the risk of deficiencies of vitamins B12 and D, calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids. [34][264]
> The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that special attention may be necessary to ensure that a vegan diet will provide adequate amounts of vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, iron, and zinc. It also states that concern that vegans and vegan athletes may not consume an adequate amount and quality of protein is unsubstantiated. [265]
FWIU, high-red-meat diet outcomes are probably on average worse.
This measures blood pressure in the fingers. There is no consistent way to translate that to a brachial artery blood pressure, which IS 'close enough' to the aortic valve. No calculations are needed, because the bloods pressure at the brachial artery will be only a few mm/Hg lower than it is at the aorta.
But on the way to the fingers, the blood pressure lowers, and a multitude of factors can influence by how much. To be clear, all of the influences that alter the peripheral blood pressure will alter core blood pressure. But the degree of alteration is going to be far more extreme and unpredictable the farther away from the heart you go.
The way ADHD medicine works in Denmark, I need to get my blood pressure measured at my doctors office every 3 months, and a while back when it was around the limit of being too high, they wanted me to do it at home for a period. So I asked if I could use one of these finger things, or even just a wrist thing and their answer was a clear no. Exactly because the number is essentially useless medically by our national guidelines.
Sometimes our national guidelines are a little outdated. The ADHD medicine type that worked the best for me is still only approved for quitting smoking (which is why I don’t use it because that means it’s often out of stock since it’s not a “vital” medicine that gets priority stock”) but also goes to show that sometimes we’re a little slow to approve things. So I don’t know if these finger readers are in that category and will eventually become viable, or if they really don’t work. But I do think it’s worth looking into before you rely too much on them.
In the UK, my psychiatrist has been taking my pressure every 6 weeks when I go back as I try to find an ADHD drug and dosage that works. This has been the case for all the stimulant type meds I've tried. I'm now finishing up my 6th week on the basic dose of atomoxetine, the first non-stimulant I've tried, and I'm guessing I'll not have my pressure tested later this week.
I had off-book buproprion, not for ADHD but depression and anxiety, from the same psychiatrist from several months before they gave me an ADHD diagnosis, and didn't get my pressure tested then. Funnily enough I found that double the max UK dose (600mg/day, an accidental misreading of the dosage wording after a few months) worked perfectly with my so-called rejection sensitivity and hypermentalisation. Whether those symptoms were in some part generated by ADHD, it is possible, and whether my ASD or ADHD somehow gives me a buproprion hyposensitivity is questionable (as I have heard that ND folk can more often have a hyper and hypo sensitivity to drugs), but it didn't help my attention. I had to stop that when a) the manufacture of buproprion was halted due to detected impruties and b) so I could get to try ADHD meds. It made me very sad because I knew I would regress, I have indeed been emotionally unstable and prone to crises since and broke up with my partner in large part due to this.
some adhd symptoms are connected to depression and cptsd as far as I read. Might be one reason, the meds don't work for you. Does caffeine agitate or calm you down? That might be one of the clues - but I'm just starting out on the journey
Are you sure they are measuring blood pressure on the fingers? My experience (just spent 21 days in a major hospital) and BP is always measured with a cuff. The finger sensor is for oxygen saturation and pulse.
A hospital is more interested in short-term changes in pressure than it is the actual number. A finger sensor will definitely detect when someonez's pressure crashes or rapidly elevates. Same is true for first responders dealing with trapped people (car crashes). The exact number will be wildly inaccurate given they arent in a proper seated position, but the delta over time is what matters.
My hands have periods where they go cold and white; possibly not Raynaud's, but something similar. I suppose that wouldn't help blood pressure detection.
I just think of how the nurse told me, the other day, of their struggles to draw blood from a finger prick test for many patients when the weather's cold and circulation is poor.
It may prove useful on some future study relating to it's efficacy on specific needs, where it may be good enough.
The article says it can differ from cuff device reading by as much as 8mmhg, but cuff device itself can have lerger error if it is not weared on the hand correctly.
So if the figure in the article is correct, this would be very useful for people living alone to quickly get approximate measurment.
I’m not a doctor but my personal belief is that hypertension is over diagnosed. A lot of people have “white coat” syndrome, and pharma companies love to get people on never-ending prescriptions.
I’m not a doctor but my personal belief is that hypertension is over diagnosed. A lot of people have “white coat” syndrome, and pharma companies love to get people on never-ending prescriptions.
Thanks for letting us know that you are in fact not a doctor. Because your belief is patently wrong.
I have high BP, I sort of see where OP is coming from... you need a lot of BP numbers to gain confidence about how bad the situation is. A one-off doctor visit once a year is not enough but it is often how the diagnosis is made.
My best recommendation for people is to get a BP cuff and just get comfortable with taking samplings periodically through the day. I take anywhere from 3 to 10 readings a day and over a month or two the data paints a good picture of your situation plus it makes you more comfortable with BP reads.
My MIL get white coat syndrome and every time she is at the hospital here numbers are much higher than at home. Her GP would not agree with this and continued to treat her with blood pressure pills aggressively. She would get dizzy and low pressure at home. Eventually switched to another doctor who trusted her and adjusted the prescription accordingly and those problems stopped and she managed to a reasonable BP range.
A one-off doctor visit once a year is not enough but it is often how the diagnosis is made
Is that actually so? Around here, the very first thing which each doctor I know off is going to say after a high reading in such one-off visit is exactly your second paragraph, because they are well aware one-off readings cannot be trusted for a diagnosis and are typically higher because of white coat stress and whatnot.
I can't really speak for other doctors, only for myself. White coat syndrome is extremely common in my experience. The existence of false positives does not make hypertension "overdiagnosed" though, it's still underdiagnosed.
There's a legion of people out there with high blood pressure who don't feel a thing. This is why doctors employ high sensitivity testing for every single patient: office blood pressure measurements. If you get a normal result, OK. If you get high blood pressure, it could be hypertension so the doctor monitors more closely.
Screening works by testing everyone with simple, cheap, fast tests and selecting those with anything that even remotely looks like a positive result for more elaborate and expensive specific tests.
Well doctor, your staff prefers to take my blood pressure while talking to me and putting a thermometer in my mouth which I'm certain violates the protocol and the target numbers were lowered by a significant amount a few years ago to boot and most people would resent pharma companies even in the best of times, so may I just accept my miniscule stroke risk in peace please and maybe focus on the underlying issues?
I already have to piss all the time from the chlorthalidone which costs more than Netflix, though it was developed a half-century ago and is made by the ton. You missed the dehydration signal in my metabolic results and your renal imaging req came up clear but cost $2k.
Can you do anything to help me live because the medical industry is doing a lot to make not living look good, or not being a patient.
Actively talking during blood pressure measurements can cause false positives. Listening and sampling of temperature in parallel shouldn't. Target systolic blood pressure in hypertensive adults is still 120-130 mmHg. The stroke risk is certainly not "minuscule", people die a lot less when they take the medicine. Underlying issues are likely to be exacerbated by hypertension since it causes continuous damage to major organs. Chlorthalidone is not the only anti-hypertensive medication available, there are other effective drugs with no diuretic effect, I suggest you talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of each class of drug so you can make an informed decision. They are certainly not risk free. Costs of testing and medicines are a matter of private and public policy, your doctor has zero influence on that, it's not their fault.
That's obviously gonna cause false positives. Physical exhertion causes the heart to respond to the greater demand for oxygen. I used to see patients in a clinic that had an elevator and stairs. Dealt with that every day.
I had one doctor do a lipid test, then tell me how horrible my numbers are and that I needed to get on meds, stat. Took the lipid test again with a different doctor, and the numbers were fine. How come? First "doctor" forgot that it was supposed to be a fasting test, took my blood shortly after a fried fish dinner, and charged me $400+ for a pointless scare. And this is just a recent example. I could go on and on with personal examples of drive-by medicine. The overwhelming majority of "doctors" all have a favorite hammer, and the rest of us end up getting nailed with it.
I don't know the exact details of your case so not responding to that, but routine lipid testing does not need to be fasting even though the test is often marked as a "fasting" test. The only number that is acutely affected is triglycerides.
Some labs still call it a fasting test - but we do not routinely advise patients to fast before a lipid screen since the main screening numbers are LDL and HDL.
It gets more complicated with triglycerides. A general sensible approach is that if triglycerides are over 400 on a non-fasting test to repeat with a fasting test.
> The overwhelming majority of "doctors" all have a favorite hammer,
In this case the diagnostic and management algorithm is pretty straightforward, unfortunately not all doctors are that good. Not sure if "overwhelming majority." is the case.
The triglycerides were the concern, and it is infuriating. Any other business would at least express come contrition and issue a refund, or at least an apology, but not doctors. If anything, she was upset that I wouldn't make her next appointment. We have so many olds and self-abusers in this country that medicine has become the new religion--with doctors as the new priests; pharmaceuticals and procedures as the new sacraments. How can we hold the priest responsible for the parishioner's sin? After all, the parishioner did not eat the right things, or did not exercise enough, or was tainted with the original sin of his own genetics.
edit: The mentality is boldly duplicitous. When you challenge their diagnoses on their own turf, they are men and women "of science", and you are a fool to yourself to question them, but when the mistakes are laid bare; being discussed inside of a courtroom--see how fast the appellation changes: from "man of science" to "humble practitioner".
I fainted and nearly died on several occasions from low blood pressure caused by overdose on blood pressure medications or its interactions with other medications/substances. With high blood pressure, I feel uncomfortable but never so severe. So there is definitely danger here.
There absolutely is. Especially in patients with orthostatic hypotension. Especially elderly patients with fall risk. Geriatric care is often a balancing act, managing the risk of complications from side effects of medications and the risk of the complications from the diseases they treat.
No treatment is risk free. Treatment is warranted when the risk/benefit analysis is favorable.
I got a new doctor recently and he agrees. He also told me to take by BP multiple times a day several days a week, for several weeks. To base high blood pressure on one reading at the doctors office every few months is won’t get you the statistical significance you need. And also to record if you drink coffee that day, if you exercised before a reading, slept well the night before, etc. BP can vary greatly from all those daily factors.
except blood pressure is ALWAYS measured incorrectly at a doctors office. So what’s the point? Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps?
“Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test.
Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins.
During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level.
The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt.
Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
> Have you ever had a health professional follow these steps?
100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
A few years ago I randomly suffered from total heart block, and over a couple months my effective heart rate gradually slowed down from 80bpm to 20-30bpm. When I ended up in the hospital, they put in a pacemaker and my heart rate immediately shot up to 110bpm. I was monitored to-the-nines in the ICU for several more days, and my blood pressure was like 160/120. I had the worst "caffeine headache" of my life.
One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me.
My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
That's an extreme high stress situation though. No one sane would attribute the higher blood pressure to primary hypertension when there are secondary causes that explain it. There are even cases where lowering the blood pressure can lead to worse outcomes.
But if those daily factors are happening all the time at some point isn’t that blood pressure measurement the one that matters? If I can get to normal bp by extreme efforts but spend most of my time in mild hypertension I might need to treat it somehow.
Blood pressure varies throughout the day with activity and it's all normal. My understanding is it's only considered hypertension if your pressure is high even at rest. If you're chronically stressed out all the time, though, then yeah maybe you're at risk of a stroke?
Hypertension is NOT overdiagnosed. If anything people aren't taking it seriously enough.
It's true that white coat syndrome must be accounted for just like all the other factors. Best way to do that is to regularly measure and keep track of your blood pressure throughout the day with your own sphygmomanometer. Sometimes 24 hour sampling may be warranted.
The recommendation for bp reading is: Sit in a comfortable chair with your back supported for at least 5 minutes before your reading - https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/measure.htm
However, this doesn't happen. In US, you check in, sit in the waiting area, then a nurse takes you in, checks weight on the way to the room, then takes bp as soon as you sit. All done in 90 seconds to 2 mins. I thought I had high BP, but was confused by the range of 20+/-, luckily my primary doctor explained the procedure and took my measurement. Now I don't get concerned, I know they are doing it wrong.
In many clinics in the US it won’t even be a nurse it will be an MA. The quality is highly variable but I don’t think it matters the staff members, taking a BP with a machine is not hard and can be trained, this is an overall issue with clinic management and quality - which is unfortunately highly variable.
I disagree, but I voted your comment up because I think it brings interesting discussion. I find it imperative to treat hypertension whenever possible to avoid long-term complications such as chronic kidney disease which will inevitably lead to costly treatments like hemodialysis or transplant, without even going into heart affections caused by long left untreated hypertension.
I mean, go to a different doctor if yours somehow doesn't know about it. Mine all have. They help account for it by sending folks home with a blood pressure machine hooked up, which you wear for 24 hours. It regularly measures blood pressure - every 15 mintues, IIRC, including at night. In the US, I had a doctor suggest I take it outside of the office regularly so that we could compare. I worked at a pharmacy, so just took it there.
"Pharma companies" aren't there to get on never-ending prescriptions: Curing things gets them fame too. Plus, the "big pharma wants you sick" conspiracies seriously leave out all of the pressure to not have folks on medications for life. Single payer health care plans, governments that administer them, private individuals, and for-profit health insurance companies all would rather not pay for it. I'm not pro big pharma, but I'm also too prudent to believe this.
I agree, there is no reason to believe hypertension is overdiagnosed. If anything it's underdiagnosed. Even without the obesity risk factor, there would still be legions of people out there with hypertension who feel literally nothing. The existence of false positives does not change that, it's an expected phenomenon in any kind of testing, diagnostic or not. It does get worse with age: pretty much all the chronic diseases become more common as people get older.
The hardware seems nice, but to me it is a huge red flag that (1) the communication between the sensor and the phone is encrypted, so that no third-party app can ever be developed, and (2) it seems that your health data is uploaded to the "cloud" without any opt-out or possibility for local operation.
This looks like it' using the method that was mentioned in the article too, it needs regular calibration with a cuff (which they include with the product).
Researchers discovered awhile back you can monitor blood pressure via the earlobes.
Not only that, you can monitor it during activity during movement, without requirement to sit still.
So I am really surprised some startup has not come up with a special earbud that also monitors blood pressure via a clip extension and broadcast via bluetooth/ANT+
Would be huge with athletes, especially with an aging population.
Great tech no doubt, but it's funny that they tout a $1 attachment to a $500+ smartphone as being more accessible to low income people than a $20 standalone blood pressure monitor.
Many low income people already prioritize having a phone over health(y/ier) food. And honestly, in today’s world that may not be as horrible a tradeoff as it first sounds.
Also you can finance a phone even with awful credit as long as the carrier you choose doesn’t have history with you. $45 a month for the top of the line iPhone is basically a fart in the wind at the grocery store.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 145 ms ] threadMy wife did not feel well last year and thought her pulse was going up. I figure I'd reassure her quickly (or notice an issue) with my Note 8.
Unbeknowst to me, some samsung update put the hardware functionality behind some health app that wanted to setup a tracking profile and two factor authentication and my email and my phone and name and details and preferences and goals and 12 point health plan and whatnot.
By the end I was the one with anxiety attack. I'm still livid when I think about it. I'm not a violent or profane man but... I have some thoughts reserved for people who planned, approved and implemented that. Not all evil is big evil. Little evil is evil too (Note for all fellow software engineers here :)
Obviously you wont get oxygenation though.
I think I picked up a dedicated unit finger pulse oximeter for like $20.
FWIU Apple Watch is one product with FDA approval as a medical device (ECG Electrocardiogram) for detection of AFib Atrial Fibrillation and Parkinsons.
Medical device design > Pathway to clearance or approval: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_device_design#Pathway_...
I did buy the separate $20 sp02 / pulse monitor after that episode. She has an apple watch now but I of course have zero confidence / will not trust the kindness of corporate strangers again to allow me access to my own hardware.
i.e., A vegetarian diet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism#Nutrients_and_potenti... :
> Vegan diets tend to be high in dietary fiber, folate, vitamins C and E, potassium, magnesium, and unsaturated fats.[34] However, consuming no animal products increases the risk of deficiencies of vitamins B12 and D, calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids. [34][264]
> The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that special attention may be necessary to ensure that a vegan diet will provide adequate amounts of vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, iron, and zinc. It also states that concern that vegans and vegan athletes may not consume an adequate amount and quality of protein is unsubstantiated. [265]
FWIU, high-red-meat diet outcomes are probably on average worse.
"The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance" (2021) https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Based-Athlete-Game-Changing-App...
This measures blood pressure in the fingers. There is no consistent way to translate that to a brachial artery blood pressure, which IS 'close enough' to the aortic valve. No calculations are needed, because the bloods pressure at the brachial artery will be only a few mm/Hg lower than it is at the aorta.
But on the way to the fingers, the blood pressure lowers, and a multitude of factors can influence by how much. To be clear, all of the influences that alter the peripheral blood pressure will alter core blood pressure. But the degree of alteration is going to be far more extreme and unpredictable the farther away from the heart you go.
Sometimes our national guidelines are a little outdated. The ADHD medicine type that worked the best for me is still only approved for quitting smoking (which is why I don’t use it because that means it’s often out of stock since it’s not a “vital” medicine that gets priority stock”) but also goes to show that sometimes we’re a little slow to approve things. So I don’t know if these finger readers are in that category and will eventually become viable, or if they really don’t work. But I do think it’s worth looking into before you rely too much on them.
I had off-book buproprion, not for ADHD but depression and anxiety, from the same psychiatrist from several months before they gave me an ADHD diagnosis, and didn't get my pressure tested then. Funnily enough I found that double the max UK dose (600mg/day, an accidental misreading of the dosage wording after a few months) worked perfectly with my so-called rejection sensitivity and hypermentalisation. Whether those symptoms were in some part generated by ADHD, it is possible, and whether my ASD or ADHD somehow gives me a buproprion hyposensitivity is questionable (as I have heard that ND folk can more often have a hyper and hypo sensitivity to drugs), but it didn't help my attention. I had to stop that when a) the manufacture of buproprion was halted due to detected impruties and b) so I could get to try ADHD meds. It made me very sad because I knew I would regress, I have indeed been emotionally unstable and prone to crises since and broke up with my partner in large part due to this.
Or are do restrictions to the fingers very?
The brachial artery that the parent mentions is located in the biceps by the way.
It may prove useful on some future study relating to it's efficacy on specific needs, where it may be good enough.
So if the figure in the article is correct, this would be very useful for people living alone to quickly get approximate measurment.
You can't use AI to classify and predict e.g. diabetic retinopathy from retinal images unless you have retinal images in the chart, over time.
Thanks for letting us know that you are in fact not a doctor. Because your belief is patently wrong.
Source: I am a doctor.
https://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news/high-blood-pre...
My best recommendation for people is to get a BP cuff and just get comfortable with taking samplings periodically through the day. I take anywhere from 3 to 10 readings a day and over a month or two the data paints a good picture of your situation plus it makes you more comfortable with BP reads.
Is that actually so? Around here, the very first thing which each doctor I know off is going to say after a high reading in such one-off visit is exactly your second paragraph, because they are well aware one-off readings cannot be trusted for a diagnosis and are typically higher because of white coat stress and whatnot.
There's a legion of people out there with high blood pressure who don't feel a thing. This is why doctors employ high sensitivity testing for every single patient: office blood pressure measurements. If you get a normal result, OK. If you get high blood pressure, it could be hypertension so the doctor monitors more closely.
Screening works by testing everyone with simple, cheap, fast tests and selecting those with anything that even remotely looks like a positive result for more elaborate and expensive specific tests.
I already have to piss all the time from the chlorthalidone which costs more than Netflix, though it was developed a half-century ago and is made by the ton. You missed the dehydration signal in my metabolic results and your renal imaging req came up clear but cost $2k.
Can you do anything to help me live because the medical industry is doing a lot to make not living look good, or not being a patient.
Doctors are human and not all-knowing (no matter how some may come across) and the patient needs to be part of their care.
I was pretty sick at that point and bedridden at times so going upstairs had my heart rate meeting Jesus for the first few minutes of activity.
They tried to take me off my medications that could be “raising your blood pressure before you have a stroke”.
I went to a sane office who asked me to continue daily home monitoring and accepts my current pcp’s measurements.
Somehow the drastic intervention in the prior paragraph has ever come up again.
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/some-health-care-professiona...
https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1657
I don't know the exact details of your case so not responding to that, but routine lipid testing does not need to be fasting even though the test is often marked as a "fasting" test. The only number that is acutely affected is triglycerides. Some labs still call it a fasting test - but we do not routinely advise patients to fast before a lipid screen since the main screening numbers are LDL and HDL.
It gets more complicated with triglycerides. A general sensible approach is that if triglycerides are over 400 on a non-fasting test to repeat with a fasting test.
> The overwhelming majority of "doctors" all have a favorite hammer,
In this case the diagnostic and management algorithm is pretty straightforward, unfortunately not all doctors are that good. Not sure if "overwhelming majority." is the case.
edit: The mentality is boldly duplicitous. When you challenge their diagnoses on their own turf, they are men and women "of science", and you are a fool to yourself to question them, but when the mistakes are laid bare; being discussed inside of a courtroom--see how fast the appellation changes: from "man of science" to "humble practitioner".
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Especially if you’re linking to a pop-health website to support your opinions.
No treatment is risk free. Treatment is warranted when the risk/benefit analysis is favorable.
Depends. If it's high enough and there's other risk factors, it's pretty safe to immediately diagnose it as hypertension.
“Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test.
Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins.
During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level.
The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt.
Don't talk during the measurement.”
source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-...
Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
> The exception to this rule is if you have a blood pressure reading of 180/110 mm Hg or higher.
> A result this high usually calls for prompt treatment.
That's what I meant by "high enough".
A single 150 x 90 mmHg reading may be uncertain ground but you don't ignore 220 x 130 mmHg.
One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me.
My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
Once you're diagnosed with high BP you can and should self monitor. That'll show the white coat if it is there.
Also BP meds are insanely cheap because.
It's true that white coat syndrome must be accounted for just like all the other factors. Best way to do that is to regularly measure and keep track of your blood pressure throughout the day with your own sphygmomanometer. Sometimes 24 hour sampling may be warranted.
However, this doesn't happen. In US, you check in, sit in the waiting area, then a nurse takes you in, checks weight on the way to the room, then takes bp as soon as you sit. All done in 90 seconds to 2 mins. I thought I had high BP, but was confused by the range of 20+/-, luckily my primary doctor explained the procedure and took my measurement. Now I don't get concerned, I know they are doing it wrong.
I mean, go to a different doctor if yours somehow doesn't know about it. Mine all have. They help account for it by sending folks home with a blood pressure machine hooked up, which you wear for 24 hours. It regularly measures blood pressure - every 15 mintues, IIRC, including at night. In the US, I had a doctor suggest I take it outside of the office regularly so that we could compare. I worked at a pharmacy, so just took it there.
"Pharma companies" aren't there to get on never-ending prescriptions: Curing things gets them fame too. Plus, the "big pharma wants you sick" conspiracies seriously leave out all of the pressure to not have folks on medications for life. Single payer health care plans, governments that administer them, private individuals, and for-profit health insurance companies all would rather not pay for it. I'm not pro big pharma, but I'm also too prudent to believe this.
Do you really believe a for-profit company doesn't want profit?
This is only going to get worse too as people who grew up overweight and not exercising get older.
Until then...
Not only that, you can monitor it during activity during movement, without requirement to sit still.
So I am really surprised some startup has not come up with a special earbud that also monitors blood pressure via a clip extension and broadcast via bluetooth/ANT+
Would be huge with athletes, especially with an aging population.
A capacitive sensor to detect finger pressure and an optical one for the blood flow. Even cheaper than using a scale to detect pressure...
The accuracy of course leaves a lot to be desired.