Did your doctor tell you to take your Blood Pressure 8 times a day? It seems like an awful lot to be taking it at home -- it can be a culprit in your fluctuating pressure and cause unnecessary stress. At most, I would say to take your blood pressure 2-3 times a day but no more than that.
A couple of things on fluctuating blood pressure- it's not uncommon, especially if you tend to stress out over it, and there are factors that can attribute to these changes or fluctuations:
Asleep or awake – usually lower when sleeping
Body position - lying down, sitting or standing
Emotional state - such as stress and anger or being relaxed
Activity level - from not moving to extreme exertion
Temperature – blood pressure will tend to go up when you are cold
White coat hypertension – blood pressure increases in a medical setting
Sleep apnea - pauses in breathing while sleeping raise blood pressure
Smoking – increases blood pressure
Caffeine – increases blood pressure
Alcohol – increases blood pressure
Panic Attacks will definitely affect your Blood Pressure and it seems that your blood pressure is more stress-related than due to your lifestyle. If you can learn to control the anxiety and stress, then you will see that your blood pressure will stabilize. It is VERY important that you take some steps back from this fixation on your blood pressure and just live a healthy lifestyle. Taper off from the amount of times you take your blood pressure until you get down to 2 times a day and eventually once it's at anything below 120/80, you can leave it to just once a day (if you must).
Comment Reply
Hi Peter,
Congrats on lowering your BP!
Did your doctor tell you to take your Blood Pressure 8 times a day? It seems like an awful lot to be taking it at home -- it can be a culprit in your fluctuating pressure and cause unnecessary stress. At most, I would say to take your blood pressure 2-3 times a day but no more than that.
A couple of things on fluctuating blood pressure- it's not uncommon, especially if you tend to stress out over it, and there are factors that can attribute to these changes or fluctuations:
Asleep or awake – usually lower when sleeping
Body position - lying down, sitting or standing
Emotional state - such as stress and anger or being relaxed
Activity level - from not moving to extreme exertion
Temperature – blood pressure will tend to go up when you are cold
White coat hypertension – blood pressure increases in a medical setting
Sleep apnea - pauses in breathing while sleeping raise blood pressure
Smoking – increases blood pressure
Caffeine – increases blood pressure
Alcohol – increases blood pressure
Panic Attacks will definitely affect your Blood Pressure and it seems that your blood pressure is more stress-related than due to your lifestyle. If you can learn to control the anxiety and stress, then you will see that your blood pressure will stabilize. It is VERY important that you take some steps back from this fixation on your blood pressure and just live a healthy lifestyle. Taper off from the amount of times you take your blood pressure until you get down to 2 times a day and eventually once it's at anything below 120/80, you can leave it to just once a day (if you must).
Best wishes,
Rosa
June 18, 2011 - 7:36amThis Comment
Reply