Stress induced hypertension

[Jo3016]

Hi all

I wrote some weeks back about my concern over an elevalted blood pressure reading. My blood pressure has always been absolutely fine. Infact, my last one last October was 120/60. However, my last 3 have been a lot higher.

I am just over 12 weeks pregnant and whilst one midwife a few weeks ago reassured me that my 133/88 reading was fine, today I was told that my blood pressure has to be closely monitored as early pregnancy should produce a drop in blood pressure rather than a rise. She said that this was probably due to something other than pregnancy.

I have had anxiety for most of my life and have sailed through my last two pregnancies and never had a problem with this before. However, I do have a lot going on at the moment - major building work on my house so no chance of rest or privacy and everywhere is a tip - my husband is also very stressed at ork and hates his job. I have a history stretching back 3 generations of family with high blood pressure and all are medication. All these people are highly streesed as I am at the moment.

Sorry about my rambling, but my question is: How many of you have high blood pressure related to our condition? How many are on medication and do you think this could be avoided by cognitive therapy?

Take care everyone and please help if you can.

Jo xx

[Joe1981]

Even just stressing about how high your blood pressure is will increase it lol don't worry too much about it but if u do test it make sure u relax and sit for 5 mins before testing, also do it 2 times in a row then average it out.. if one day seems a little high don't worry just do it for a couple weeks.. make sure u mark everything down on a piece of paper so you can show your doctor if you are still worried :) don't worry about one high reading..

[Jaco45er]

The odd high reading in blood pressure is not a concern to GP's. I get high BP related to anxiety, even seen readings of 170/100 (mind you, that was during a panic attack).

Generally, a reading over 140/90 is considered mild hypertenstion, but you can't take one reading as gospel. I get "white coat" syndrome in the GP surgery, were my BP is elevated purely because I am at the GP surgery, usually 150/90. They gave me a 24 hour monitor, and my average BP was around 130/80 so they were not concerned with a one off high reading.

Our bodies are designed to take high blood pressure for short periods of time, and a weight lifters BP can hit 220/120 when lifting.

And although high BP is bad in the long run, it can take many years for it to do damage. Mind you that said, its never a good thing to ignore constant high readings.

I wouldn't worry about a slightly high reading, only natural with so much going on.

A word of advice to anyone reading this who has bought a home BP monitor. Make sure you get a cuff size thats right for your arm, My home BP monitor was constantly giving me readings well over 140/90, the NHS monitor was always below. I found in the end (After stressing over BP) that the unit I bought had the standard cuff size, which was too small for my arm, so was giving false high readings. I have since bought the proper sized cuff for my arm, and my readings are mainly below 140/90.

Good Luck