Q: I get nervous when approached with taking my blood pressure. The first reading is always extremely high. Yet, I find that if I am distracted, (i.e. watching an interesting program, laughing, reading a great book) while i take the reading my numbers are much lower and on occasion the optimal reading. I do not suffer from symptoms of high blood pressure but I am overweight. I want to avoid any medications, what should i do?
A: Many people get nervous with the thought of having their blood pressure measured. That is why the recommendation is to sit quietly for about five minutes prior to taking a reading. If you don’t have a regular exercise program, start exercising. Even if you don’t lose weight, regular exercise will help with blood pressure control. Since many of your readings are higher than optimal, you might want to start using the RESPeRATE. It has no side effects and has clinically been proven to lower blood pressure. Personally I find it very soothing to use.
Further Reading:
What is RESPeRATE? – resperate.com
(10 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)
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Same thing happens to me and I’ve found a few ways to deal with and counter it. First of all, set the expectation in your mind that the first reading is going to be high every single time so don’t stress about it being high before you take it. After the first reading, take 2 deep breaths (slowly in and out) and try to relax your abdominal muscles as much as possible. When my abs are tensed, my BP is at least 10% higher than when relaxed. Take it again after the deep breaths and ab relaxing and it should have dropped significantly.
I’ve also sat with my BP cuff on and watching tv and taken readings about every 5 minutes for an hour or so just to get used to the feeling, sound, etc. of the instrument and to get my mind to associate the relaxed experience of watching tv with taking of BP. Sort of a positive reinforcement training for the subconscious.
Another method I’ve used is to put on the Resperate and take my bp about 5-10 minutes into the therapeutic breathing session. Its usually dropped way down at that point.
I found that taking L-Theanine helps calm the nerves in a Dr. appt. and may help ward off the White Coat effect. Also consider adaptogenic herbs for stress.
I, too, have high first readings: 146/91, then 6 minutes later, 145/87, then i use RESPeRATE and go down to 134/78 and even lower as I “practice breathing”. I am using RESPeRATE only 6 weeks so haven’t seen my initial numbers drop, but the fact that I have seen 151/83 drop to 140/77 with normal breathing, and then 129/79 and 125/77 with RESPeRATE breathing is immensely encouraging to me.
So, continue to “practice breathing” and purse your lips to blow out gently since I have found that pursing the lips does make a difference.
DOC’S OFFICE ALWAYS VERY HIGH….I TOLD DOC. MY READINGS WERE MUCH LOWER ( 130’S/80 ) AT HOME…HE MADE ME BRING MY HOME B.P. MONITER, AND COMPARE WITH HIS OFFICE ONE….THEY COMPARE ALMOST EXACTLY…AT HIS OFFICE ALWAYS 170-190 / 90-100…DON’T KNOW WHY, BUT I FEEL MYSELF TENSING UP BADLY WHEN IT’S FIRST BEING TAKEN…