BP Readings

[dpotts]

I wonder if someone can explain something. Before taking your blood pressure you are supposedly have to sit quietly for several minutes. If I take my BP as soon as I sit my BP is high and then falls over subsequent readings. But surely you are moving around most of the day and I assume your BP would be high during these times.

[Happyrosie]

Let’s see if I can put it another way, Dpotts. Suppose it’s raining hard, you’ve forgotten your umbrella, you dash home and take your blood pressure straight away - yes, it’s going to be very high. Very high indeed.

If it wasn’t raised, you wouldn’t be able to run through the raindrops - you just would not be able to do it. That’s the purpose of your pressures adjusting themselves to your circumstances.

So, the medics have decided to say that, if you’ve been sitting quietly for ten minutes and you are aged 50, your pressures should not be above 140/90 (or whatever it is). They can’t publish criteria to say “if you’ve been running for ten minutes at six miles per hour your pressure should be xxx/xx”. Because that can’t be replicated easily in real life.

So the published guidelines always assume you’ve rested.

Your blood pressure varies from moment to moment, depending on what you are doing.

Does this sound sensible and answer your query?

[dpotts in reply to Happyrosie]

Yes thank you