I’m not a doctor but my personal belief is that hypertension is over diagnosed. A lot of people have “white coat” syndrome, and pharma companies love to get people on never-ending prescriptions.
Thanks for letting us know that you are in fact not a doctor. Because your belief is patently wrong.
Source: I am a doctor.
https://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news/high-blood-pre...
My best recommendation for people is to get a BP cuff and just get comfortable with taking samplings periodically through the day. I take anywhere from 3 to 10 readings a day and over a month or two the data paints a good picture of your situation plus it makes you more comfortable with BP reads.
Is that actually so? Around here, the very first thing which each doctor I know off is going to say after a high reading in such one-off visit is exactly your second paragraph, because they are well aware one-off readings cannot be trusted for a diagnosis and are typically higher because of white coat stress and whatnot.
There's a legion of people out there with high blood pressure who don't feel a thing. This is why doctors employ high sensitivity testing for every single patient: office blood pressure measurements. If you get a normal result, OK. If you get high blood pressure, it could be hypertension so the doctor monitors more closely.
Screening works by testing everyone with simple, cheap, fast tests and selecting those with anything that even remotely looks like a positive result for more elaborate and expensive specific tests.
I already have to piss all the time from the chlorthalidone which costs more than Netflix, though it was developed a half-century ago and is made by the ton. You missed the dehydration signal in my metabolic results and your renal imaging req came up clear but cost $2k.
Can you do anything to help me live because the medical industry is doing a lot to make not living look good, or not being a patient.
Doctors are human and not all-knowing (no matter how some may come across) and the patient needs to be part of their care.
I was pretty sick at that point and bedridden at times so going upstairs had my heart rate meeting Jesus for the first few minutes of activity.
They tried to take me off my medications that could be “raising your blood pressure before you have a stroke”.
I went to a sane office who asked me to continue daily home monitoring and accepts my current pcp’s measurements.
Somehow the drastic intervention in the prior paragraph has ever come up again.
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/some-health-care-professiona...
I don't know the exact details of your case so not responding to that, but routine lipid testing does not need to be fasting even though the test is often marked as a "fasting" test. The only number that is acutely affected is triglycerides. Some labs still call it a fasting test - but we do not routinely advise patients to fast before a lipid screen since the main screening numbers are LDL and HDL.
It gets more complicated with triglycerides. A general sensible approach is that if triglycerides are over 400 on a non-fasting test to repeat with a fasting test.
> The overwhelming majority of "doctors" all have a favorite hammer,
In this case the diagnostic and management algorithm is pretty straightforward, unfortunately not all doctors are that good. Not sure if "overwhelming majority." is the case.
edit: The mentality is boldly duplicitous. When you challenge their diagnoses on their own turf, they are men and women "of science", and you are a fool to yourself to question them, but when the mistakes are laid bare; being discussed inside of a courtroom--see how fast the appellation changes: from "man of science" to "humble practitioner".
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Especially if you’re linking to a pop-health website to support your opinions.
No treatment is risk free. Treatment is warranted when the risk/benefit analysis is favorable.
However, this doesn't happen. In US, you check in, sit in the waiting area, then a nurse takes you in, checks weight on the way to the room, then takes bp as soon as you sit. All done in 90 seconds to 2 mins. I thought I had high BP, but was confused by the range of 20+/-, luckily my primary doctor explained the procedure and took my measurement. Now I don't get concerned, I know they are doing it wrong.
Depends. If it's high enough and there's other risk factors, it's pretty safe to immediately diagnose it as hypertension.
“Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test.
Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins.
During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level.
The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt.
Don't talk during the measurement.”
source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-...
Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
> The exception to this rule is if you have a blood pressure reading of 180/110 mm Hg or higher.
> A result this high usually calls for prompt treatment.
That's what I meant by "high enough".
A single 150 x 90 mmHg reading may be uncertain ground but you don't ignore 220 x 130 mmHg.
One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me.
My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
I mean, go to a different doctor if yours somehow doesn't know about it. Mine all have. They help account for it by sending folks home with a blood pressure machine hooked up, which you wear for 24 hours. It regularly measures blood pressure - every 15 mintues, IIRC, including at night. In the US, I had a doctor suggest I take it outside of the office regularly so that we could compare. I worked at a pharmacy, so just took it there.
"Pharma companies" aren't there to get on never-ending prescriptions: Curing things gets them fame too. Plus, the "big pharma wants you sick" conspiracies seriously leave out all of the pressure to not have folks on medications for life. Single payer health care plans, governments that administer them, private individuals, and for-profit health insurance companies all would rather not pay for it. I'm not pro big pharma, but I'm also too prudent to believe this.
Do you really believe a for-profit company doesn't want profit?
It's true that white coat syndrome must be accounted for just like all the other factors. Best way to do that is to regularly measure and keep track of your blood pressure throughout the day with your own sphygmomanometer. Sometimes 24 hour sampling may be warranted.
Once you're diagnosed with high BP you can and should self monitor. That'll show the white coat if it is there.
Also BP meds are insanely cheap because.
This is only going to get worse too as people who grew up overweight and not exercising get older.