over taking blood pressure

[franceslee]

I so have high blood pressure and am on lisinopril for it most of the time it works great however today, I've checked it a few different times and its been elevated....should I be worried ???  I do take my blood pressure A LOT, maybe too much.  How do you know when is the best time to take it??  How often should I take it??  I know it can flucuate but I just want to make sure its where its supose to be and the meds are working.  But its like im addicted to taking it, I'm constantly afraid there is something wrong with my heart!!  I also have anxiety but can't get into counciling until the 8 th for it.  PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME KNOW HOW TO CORRECTLY MONITOR MY BP!!  THANKS FOR ANY HELP!

[is_something_wrong]

Hi,

As a rule of thumb, if you measure your BP when you are thinking "oh no, now it's high!" you are not measuring your correct (baseline) blood pressure.

It sounds to me like one reason for your high blood pressure is your anxiety about having high blood pressure (not unlike myself).

Your blood pressure, like your heart rate, is supposed to fluctuate. A poor blood pressure response to stress, activity, etc. is actually a disease. If you had a blood pressure of 120/80 along with a heart rate of 60 while trying to escape from a fire or an accident would be harmful, as you would not be able to do anything except walking slowly away.

Often, the anxiety is misplaced and it's not healthy to live with chronic anxiety (which elevates the blood pressure), but in that case, you have an anxiety problem and not a blood pressure problem. In that case, the blood pressure is just a symptom. Treat the root, the cause, not just the symptom.

Ask for a 24 hour monitor. If the results are fairly normal, try to reduce the monitoring. Start with checking your blood pressure like Jon suggested, once every morning, and if possible, try to reduce it to once a week. Make sure you relax while measuring, as the results when you are stressing are fairly worthless and just contribute to stressing yourself even more.

My morning BP is 90/55 (with no meds) but I can easily see results in the 140-150/90 range if I'm stressing enough.

[erijon]

That's kind of the point where you want to call your doctor for advice. You can also call any ER as well. Your true BP would be the number you get when you first get up in the morning.

Jon

[franceslee]

When u refer to the 170/110....do u mean when I check it first thing in the morning??  Thanks for the advice!!  

[erijon]

Only take your BP once a day at the same time, preferably first thing in the morning. Then make sure you track it to get your average because daily spikes are not uncommon. Also, the more you take it the higher it gets so stop taking multiple readings. Unless you get a level that is really high, like 170/110, don't panic and wait for a couple hours to take it again.

Use the BP tracker at Medhelp, it's great.

Jon