Blood Pressure

[Braddock]

Hey everyone,

I am a very anxious person (generalized anxiety, not specific attacks) about my health. Always thinking about it, worrying, researching, etc. Pretty lame. I think it is because I have had some urinary symptoms (real) that so far I have had trouble getting diagnosed. Thus it started a big chain cycle where I am always paranoid about my health.

Anyway, I am 18 years old and in great shape. Play sports, lift weights, dont drink soda or eat junk food, etc. No known medical problems (save the weird urinary symptoms and mild benign tinnitus that I was born with).

So I had a recent doctors visit back in May and my blood pressure was 120/80. Not too shabby. At this point I didnt even know what blood pressure was but I knew mine was good. However now that I knew what BP was I, being anxious about my health, wanted to learn more.

So a month later I (and lots of anxious research later) I found a supermarket BP machine and got a reading of 137/80. Noticibly higher. And so throughout the summer I found several free BP machines inside supermarkets and Wal-marts and recorded my results, which were quite disturbing:

137/80
147/78
153/90
155/90
157/88
160/90
153/88
146/90
146/80
153/94
157/88

These were the readings I got over the summer.

Now it seems strange to me that I develop high BP right after I learn about what blood pressure is. Before this point my BP was always good.

I suspect that I get anxious when I test my BP myself, and that is what accounts for this elevation. My pulse often seems fast during the testing (100-115), leading me further to label anxiety as the cause. Could it be possible general stress, anxiety, and worry is behind this? Thanks.

[Carrie352]

Stress and anxiety absolutely can raise your BP.  I had the same thing this past week when i was sick and stressing about something.  When i went to the docs my BP was 150/109...higher than i have ever been.  It scares the **** out of you to get a reading like that.  Go to the docs.  What they will do is a series of BP readings on you.  They will check your pressure.  Then they will have you come back 2 or more times to check you BP.  That is the first step in diagnosing high BP.  More than likely it is just transient...and is just high b/c stress.  Stop worrying about it.  You are very young...and your pressure is probably just fine.  The machines at supermarkets aren't very reliable to my understanding either.  Hope this helps...good luck to you.

[sumihari]

Hi,

Your bp at the doctors is excellent. So don't worry too much about the readings you get when you are active.  When you are active, your pulse will be higher and your bp would go up too. The supermarket machines are usually not accurate.

[scaredjo]

if you are worried get the doctor check it out, when you was checking your BP at the supermarkets your higher numbers were quite high but your lower numbers were fine and there the important ones, worrying about your BP will deffo raise it and raise your pulse to, trust me i have an obsession with takin my BP!!

[Catherine518]

Absolutely.  I gave myself high blood pressure for the longest time, because I was afraid of the doctor.  I had one bad experience with a doctor telling me, "if you don't get your blood pressure down in the next ten mintues, I'm not givng you a birth control prescription".  (Still have a deep love for that lady ;-)  And for years after that, I had high blood pressure every time I went to any doctor for anything.  Finally, one nurse said to me, "just come back over the next couple of weeks whenever you're close by, and we'll just check your blood pressure randomly.  Don't make an appointment, don't think too much about it."  That's all it took.  After five screenings, my blood pressure was perfectly normal and has been ever since.  So, go to you doctor, ask if you can do a simple screening.  They've all heard of "white-coat disease" and hopefully will be happy to help you figure out if you have high blood pressure, or just a fear.  You'll feel much better knowing one way or the other, and that will certainly help your blood pressure!