Blood Pressure...

[purrr]

Also take your blood pressures in the morning and in the evening.

I take mine around lunch time when the body has settled into it’s rhythm for the day. Take three readings and use the device’s average function. Sometimes I do another as I find the first one can be higher at times (also need to climb a set of stairs).

 

[Mirai]

I take mine around lunch time when the body has settled into it’s rhythm for the day. Take three readings and use the device’s average function. Sometimes I do another as I find the first one can be higher at times (also need to climb a set of stairs).

You can take your BP as often as you like. But for monitoring, if you want to see the minimum way it changes, AM and PM reading is enough. Take it at rest, after a full 5 minutes. If your BP is good at the dr office and he's happy, do it the way you're doing it.

Of course you can also take it if you're feeling dizzy and you think you may have low BP at that moment.

Some recommendations for home readings (UK):

https://www.bloodpressureuk.org/your-blood-pressure/how-to-lower-your-blood-pressure/monitoring-your-blood-pressure-at-home/how-to-measure-your-blood-pressure-at-home/

Some recommendations for office readings (i.e. outpatient):

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.125.24527

Of course listen to your treating doctor's instructions first.

For people with spare money and who are very into monitoring their BP, a professional or semi-professional BP device (eg ProBP 2000) is an idea but it's optional. It can be calibrated professionally, calibration costs about R800 or so, in professional settings that's done annually with a certificate (or should be) but in those settings these devices are exploited aggressively - eg 100s of BPs taken daily which can stress the mechanics of the device. For home use, annual calibration is probably not needed unless the device was dropped on a hard floor. Also make sure the cuff is the right size and not damaged.

 

[Mirai]

Um.


View attachment 1922743
I think I should stop one of the meds

Protip: if you're seeing low BP and a fast heart rate i.e > 100, it could be significant. So the one above I'd get checked out urgently professionally unless the attending doctor knows about it and has given advice already.

Also any symptoms like dizziness, near blackout or blackout or chest pain, are significant and will need urgent medical assessment (especially near blackout, blackout, chest pain, nausea, feeling unwell). So those kind of BPs should be checked out urgently.

The body responds to low BP by increasing the heart rate. So the body in such a case has problems the low BP is causing. The low BP can also be caused by nasty things ergo urgency when it happens, especially with symptoms.

Some people usually run low BPs and their doctor is happy, especially if no symptoms and heart rate is between 60 and 100.

The BP could also be checked incorrectly which can also cause abnormal results.

Two scenarios:

Bad thing --> LOW BP (usually with symptoms)
or treatment related LOW BP --> bad thing.

What Is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is the amount of force your blood uses to get through your arteries. Learn how providers measure it and what your numbers should be.

my.clevelandclinic.org

In the general population, not for picture above:
Sometimes, after a workout a normal person could have temporary low BP and an increased heart rate. Such a person usually has no symptoms. The BP will then recover as the body rests a bit. Usually healthy people who have no symptoms don't check their BP all the time and checking BP all the time when not medically required can also lead to a neurosis and the 'worried well' syndrome and then over assessments and secondary anxiety and so on. So checking BP too much and finding out things which don't fit the norm is not good because it can cause anxiety. Unless recommended by attending doctor, casual BP checking may possibly be not for everyone. The normal nurse or primary doctor driven BP screening eg annually is still recommended.
Not saying that's the case above at all.

When it comes to BPs, the general population follows a Bell curve or a skewed Bell curve. This means that as many as 2.5% of the healthy people out there could be fine with a BP under 90/60 at times. They would then never know they had such BPs as these don't cause symptoms or cause problems.