Me and my doctor have been monitoring my blood pressure more closely lately. I am a healthy 20 year old woman, exercise regularly, not overweight, avoid salt, never drink caffeine or alcohol, and etc…..I think you get the point.
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! 