Do I have high blood pressure?

[englishlad]

Im a 25 years old and for the most of my quarter of a century of life, i have been pretty normal. In February of this year i had eaten an extremely large meal and felt very light-headed afterwards. My symptoms were a racing heart and a feeling of fainting. I didnt know what was going on so i began to panic due to the fact that i had never felt that way before. I went into my car and locked the door and just lied down hoping it would go away which it did eventually. My dad was with me and he had said "son, u just ate too much" so the anxiety kinda went away, or did it...? For the next couple weeks i had returned to normal but in the back of my mind i thought "what really happened that day". I begen overdwelling on things afterwards such as arm pains , headaches, ect ect..which eventually brought back the same feeling. I had told my parents about my feelings and my mother had told me to go to the supermarket and have your blood pressure taken at the pharmacy, so i did...I went in feeling very nervous and as the machine squeezed my arm i began to feel my heart race. My reading was 152/92 and i FREAKED OUT and had a full blown panic attack! I somehow drove myself to the hospital and they calmed me down, gave me an EKG which was normal except for the beats per minute obvoiusly and they were able to calm me down and once my blood pressure came back down to 130/80 they let me go and told me to try taking xanax. I went online and read the side-effects and decided that i shouldnt start taking medication at my age.I decided to visit a carteologist just to be safe. When i was there, i was extremely nervous and my "bp" was 140-100 . They really didnt say much about that probably due to the fact that they knew i was nervous, however my heart overall was fine. It is now june 2006 and have developed an enormous phobia about blood pressure and decided to purchase my own blood pressure monitor for my home(this made things worse) and everytime i apply the cuff i get nervous and it is always high. I decided to visit the hospital again and try and overcome the fear again so i could convince myself i didnt have high blood pressure. Once again i started to feel nervous and began to have another anxiety attack(arms tingling,heavy chest, ect ect) thus when they took it, it was high. They gave me a xanax pill and came back about 30 mins later and my blood pressure was 128/78. The following day i went back to the hospital again and took a xanax and it was 120/70.My blood pressure phobia is slowing deminishing, however my new worry is that "is my blood pressure only normal when i am on xanax" is xanax made to lower blood pressure and if someone that has hypertension took xanax, would their blood pressure come down too? I feel as though i am losing controle of my life and have a fear of developing "ocd".Do you think i have hypertension,or is this all in my mind? When i come home from the hospital i am ok for a few hours untill allthe "what if's"enter my brain!help!

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

This is a rather typical anxiety reaction. It does not have to become ocd or anything if you try to get a perspective on yourself and your life right now, either a alone, or through some sort of meditation or by seeing a therapist for some brief counseling.

Xanax does not control high blood pressure with someone who has it, only anxiety. throw away your blood pressure machine and stop testing, that's what I suggest.

[rosetoes]

You have the classic case of anxiety/panic attack.  If you notice the only time you take your blood pressure and the only time your pressure is high is when you are experiencing panic or anxiety worrying that something is wrong with you.  Once you take a xanax and you calm down, your blood pressure is normal.

Xanax is not a blood pressure medicine...it is strictly for anxiety and it has a sedative effect.  Once you are calm, your body settles down from the fear and anxiety.  

I went to several doctors because I just couldn't beleive that my symptoms were not real..rapid heart beat, hyperventalating, lightheadness, hot flushes..etc.  Thousand and Thousands of dollars later, and a clean bill of health, I know it is anxiety. I have learn to deal with it and I put things in perspective.  Learn to deep breath from your stomach, it will stop the hyperventalating and rapid heart rate.  Also when you start to panic about how you are feeling, reassure yourself that you are okay and that you have experience this feeling before and you turned out fine...There are many great self-help books out there that will assist in understanding this problem and how to overcome it.  

Best wishes to you.

[LukeL]

I have learned to avoid using the blood pressure machines at department stores because I tend to overly worry about my results. Like many people here I have spent a great deal of money on tests (4+ EKGs 2 trips to the ER, Echo, 2 consults by cardiologists, EKGs read by different cardiologist in the ER etc etc etc) and I still was convinced they were missing something. I now know its all anxiety.

[anya77]

Hi,

I've been through very similar symptoms about one year ago. Now i know that i had a panic attack disorder. Almost every night i was not able sleep and i was thinking i was having a heart attack or a stroke. My arms would get numb, i would feel duzzy and lightheaded, i would also get a numb sensation inside my head, i would become swetting and throuwing up, and i felt like someone tied a belt around my chest, since i could not sleep. It would most commonly happen at night, after trying to fall asleep, and my heartbeat would reach 120 beats per minute, and my blood pressure would sometimes reach 140/100.

After many visits to the emergency room and many exams for my brain and heart, the doctors told me that i'm completely healthy, and that i need to pay a visit to mental health professionals about this. I didn't beleive at first, that these are purely phycological problems. But after getting a treatment from phycologist (therapy for 3 months) and psyciatrist (prozac 20mg per day), and after learning A LOT about panic attacks, i was panic attack free for a year and embrased life.

What really helped me, was understanding what happens in my body when i'm having a panic attack. Imagine, your car got stcuk on a railroad track and the train is approaching. Any person's reaction would be to try to get out of the car as fast as possible. In order to do this, the body would undergo several changes in order to assist you in this task. The blood pressure would increase (hence the high blood pressure and sweting), the blood would concentrate in the torso (hence numb feet and hands), the adrenaline would rush into your blood (hence high heart beet) and so on.

In many people for not known reasons sometimes these reaction happen even if no emmidiate danger is around us. The person's reaction to these changes is what can start a panic attack!!!!

Imagine, you are sleeping, and suddenly you are getting all the above mentioned conditions! There is no immediate danger around. YOUR MIND then comes into play and starts looking for danger. If there is no train coming at your car right now, but you are sweting, it must be something inside you! You are probably having a heart attack or a stroke!

As soon as the mind found the reason, the loop is closed. Now the body will react even worse, since the REAL DANGER is found, and the more severe reactions can start happening in your body.
The answer is that you have to find a way of not being scared of the panic attacks, then the symptoms will just pass. Don't close the loop! Accept your body how it is and try to just observe what is going on.

Realising this was the first step for my recovery. The recovery was longer and more difficult than just this, of course. Moreover, i'm not completely recovered yet, since right now i'm going through the withdrawl symptoms from prozac. I've been off it for a month now and from time to time still have difficulties with my heart beat and blood preassure.

However, calming myself down and loving myself and my body always helps. I hope this can help you too!

[greenchili]

I have high blood pressure and "white coat" syndrome. Everytime I went into the doctor's office I got my lisinopril dosage increased because the medicine did NOT treat white coat syndrome. The doctor had me on the maximum dose of 40 mg. Of course that didn't work, so the doctor prescribed Lotrel. After taking Lotrel for a month, I decided to take control of my life as that blood pressure medicine was killing me! I bought a blood pressure monitor and started treating my blood pressure with supplements. After clearing out my arteries with EDTA oral chelation, I got my blood pressure down into 120s-130s over 70s-80s.

However, went I went to another doctor for a physical, I saw my blood pressure shoot up to the 180s/100s. This was when I discovered that I have white coat syndrome, which is nothing more than an anxiety attack. I started going to a medical doctor practicing alternative medicine. He suggested that I start taking GABA for anxiety.

Before donating blood on 05/24/06, I took five 750 mg tablets of GABA (3,750 mg total) before leaving the house. The nurse got a reading of 131/82. On the previous donation, my reading was 160/82. The reason I started donating blood last year was to deal with my white coat syndrome.

Try GABA which is available from your local health/vitamin store.....whoa...english lad might be in England. Try the internet before throwing out the blood pressure monitor as it will teach you how much GABA you need to take prior to your next doctor visit.

GABA is gamma-aminobutyric acid, an amino acid derivative and a key inhibitory neurotransmitter. It has an effect on the firing of neurons and supports a calm mood.

In addition, based on the severity of your attacks, you might need to investigate other natural remedies for the brain such as 5-HPT, SAMe, DHA, and food-based multi B vitamims complex. It should be noted that I am taking 2 1/2 - 5 mg of lisinpril for my high blood pressure. Remember, I was doing 40 mg at one time. I am taking this small dosage of prescription drug to SAVE money as I spend well over 100 dollars each month on supplements. So by taking natural treatments (GABA) for your anxiety attack, if you do need a prescription drug, in addtion to GABA, then your dosage should be smaller, i.e. 5 mg vs 40 mg. I have no side effects from taking 2 1/2 mg of lisinopril which retains potassium within my body, whereas, with 40 mg, I would black out when rising from a sitting position. My blood pressure reading this morning was 118/82 and I'm 59 years old.

[jesussavedme]

I HAVE THE EXACT PROBLEM! Anxiety can be very powerful and you HAVE to catch it right when it creeps up. I obsessed over my blood pressure a few years ago and I was able to get it to go down because I would consciously sit there on my couch trying to relax until I seen it drop, testing my pressure over and over for hours.  I dealt with the terror of anxiety for about 2 years and I have had relief for another 2 years until recently.

I visited England for a few weeks and I had been stressing out about coming home because I missed my son and also because I knew when I got back I would be moving across the state and preparing to get into the police academy. Well, everyone knows that your BP has to be normal for the academy, so all the sudden while I was gone, I started to say "Hmmm, I wonder what my BP is. I have been eating a lot of junk food and my head has been feeling tight. I bet it's high." The stress of "The Academy" and "What if..." started to overwhelm me.. As soon as I got home, I waited a few hours because I knew i would be tense and took my bp. It was 134/99. I was freaking OUT! I went to the cardiologist a few days later and it was the same thing. But when I got home and checked it, it was starting fall (114-122/78-90), although not as low as I wanted it, but it was just overwhelming stress because in the back of my mind, I kept thinking "my career is over!", so hence, my blood pressure stayed elevated.

I went to church and was advised to put the BP monitor away and don't check it for at least 30 days. I have felt much better even though it seems like that monitor has magnetic force calling me to it like a drug begging me to check my pressure. I won't. I have been through this and it does go down. I know you may be thinking everyone is wrong and you have some underlying reason for having hypertension, but you don't! Even with your heart rate down to normal, or almost normal, your bp can still be high due to the tension and stress because your blood vessels are dilated and your heart is beating HARDER not necessarily faster.

You are not alone and this will soon pass. Good luck.