Blood pressure and heart rate? Please answer?!
Question: Blood pressure and heart rate? Please answer?
Anyways I've been recording my blood pressure consistently for about 2 weeks. I've been going to the Safeway pharmacy (they have a well maintained BP machine), I have also been using the BP machines that are used on patients in hospitals ( I have clinical/practicum at the hospital). Both of them have been giving me numbers in the same ranges so I know that it's not just the pharmacy one that is giving me high numbers.
First of all last time I went to see my doctor my readings were in the high 140s/90s.
Feb 8th- Hospital- 140/102- Heart rate: 127
Feb 8th- Pharmacy- 151/101- Heart rate: 121
Feb 9th- Hospital- 137/101- Heart rate: 112
Feb 9th- Hospital- 146/104- Heart rate: 119
Feb 11- Pharmacy- 152/100- Heart rate: 131
Feb 14th- Pharmacy- 155/106- Heart rate: 126
Feb 16th- Hospital- 143/104- Heart rate 137
Feb 16th- Hospital- 133/105- Heart rate: 134
Feb 18th- Pharmacy- 154/111- Heart rate:110
Feb 19th- Pharmacy- 145/90- Heart rate: 124
Feb 20th- Pharmacy- 139/94- Heart rate: 127
Feb 14th- Blood donation building- 162/98- 118 (did not qualify to donate)
My friend has also been watching her blood pressure as well when she goes to the pharmacy and her readings are around the same range as the readings she got at her doctor's. She has a bigger arm circumference than me, and when I take her blood pressure manually it is right around the numbers that the pharmacy give her ( supporting more the fact that the pharmacy's machine is calibrated and well maintained). Her readings are as follows:
Manually- 108/70
Feb 11th- Pharmacy- 111/67- Heart rate: 84
Feb 18th- Pharmacy- 106/70- Heart rate: 70
Feb 20th- Pharmacy- 117/67- Heart rate: 83
Feb 21st- Pharmacy- 108/64- Heart rate 69
Another thing I should tell you is that before each of my recordings I have sat down for at least 5 minutes relaxing. Also if it was taken at the pharmacy I did not shop or anything prior to.
My doctor has also tested many things, such as thyroid, kidneys and more and all came back normal. Do you think this could just be genetics, since 3 of my grandparents and 1 uncle and 1 auntie have hypertension (but not my parents).
Me and my doctor already know that it's not my lifestyle affecting my blood pressure since I am maintaining a healthier life style than most people and always watch carefully what I do and eat.
Please answer and thanks for you time. I was also wondering why is my diastolic always elevated? I still haven even come across a patient at the hospital (at practicum) that has a diastolic elevated like mine, most of them if they do have a higher BP reading it will only have a high systolic.
So to make this easy my questions are:
Why do you think my blood pressure is this high at such a young age?
Could my heart rate be caused by the high blood pressure or vise versa?
How likely do you think I will be going on medications?
Why would my diastolic always be so elevated?
Could this simply be due to genetics from previous family members with hypertension?
Thank you! :)
Answers:
I personally think you either need more testing or a visit with a cardiologist who might be able to sort this out for you. I believe something else other than simple thyroid, body chemistry problem might be going on. Maybe your adrenal glands are not functioning correctly, maybe there is an abnormality in your kidneys - both can be causes of elevated BP and heart rate. Genetics can play a part with your blood pressure and medications may become part of your lifestyle for this but, your resting heart rate is abnormal and this combination needs further investigation. Continue monitoring these - make sure you have been sitting quietly for at least 10 minutes. It would be nice if you could ask around and find someone who has a home BP machine so that you could check your resting/basal BP and heart rate when you first awaken in the morning and before getting out of bed (while sitting upright on the side of the bed). This will give you your lowest readings and then all others can be compared to this. And remember, your blood pressure always elevates in the later afternoon and evenings so these numbers will always be higher than your morning readings.
Health care provider
Some people have high blood pressure due to heredity. Yours is in the warning zone. Mine tends to read a little high, but it has usually been when I've been at the physician where I've just hurried across town for an appt and had maybe a minute to sit down. Same with those machines in a pharmacy.
You might want to invest in an at home unit (CVS has a decent one). Then sit down in the evening and rest for 10 minutes, then take your BP. Let your physician know what those numbers are.
It's probably hereditary. Those blood pressures aren't quite in the hypertension area (except that last one at the blood donation building... no wonder they denied you =P) so it's probably not something to freak out about, but you might want to get a weak blood pressure medicine prescribed. I'm currently taking amlodipine.
I would think that the high blood pressure is caused by your heart rate, because with your blood moving that fast, it would be hard for the blood not to hit harder.
Taking medicine for high blood pressure since I was 6