Comments on: I just proved an incredibly important way to measure your blood pressure!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:41:58 +0000

I could not figure out why I started having high blood pressure readings shortly being diagnosed with hypothyroidism (140s-150s/90s). My initial doctor simply wanted to put me on low dose bp medication, but I wasn’t having it. I went to a cardiologist who put me on a diet of 2000 mg of sodium or less per day. At the end of the month my bp was in the high 120s-130s/80s. Though I thought that was a great improvement, he still wanted to put me on bp meds but I didn’t do it. I’m glad, because now, as long as I watch my diet, my bp is always in the 120s/80s range, and quite frankly, I would have never went to a doctor for bp in that range. Still, I have always thought there had to be a link to either my hashimoto caused hypothyroidism, or to the meds I was taking for it (levothyroxine). Today I found the abstract of an article that seems to suggest that it could very well just be the hypothyroidism. Though you can’t read the full article without payment, I thought I would share the link in case anyone else is having similar issues. Perhaps treating high blood pressure with hypothryodism is as simple as cutting out the salt. http://www.nature.com/ajh/journal/v14/n10/full/ajh2001176a.html

By: Milton

Milton — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:50:56 +0000

BP numbers; subtract the smaller from the larger and divide by the pulse to get the mm Hg per pulse, less than one is favored.

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:18:35 +0000

Here is really helpful document – the guideline from the American Heart Association on taking BP correctly. May be handy to print out and show your doctor or nurse too if they are not familiar with the above points.

http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/45/1/142

By: Louise

Louise — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:53:58 +0000

There are some other things to remember too, and they are especially important if you are overweight, as so mnay of us thyroid patients are. There are studies which show as many as 50% of obese people told they are hypertensive are actually normal thanks to poor knowlege about how to correctly take a BP measurement.

-MOST IMPORTANTLY – use the correct cuff size. Measure your bicep at the level of your heart with a tape measure, and make sure it is within the range printed on the BP cuff. It doesn’t matter if the cuff will go around your arm anyway, what matters is the bladder size inside the cuff. For most brands, the “regular” cuff is for adult arms up to 13.5″. The “large” cuff is for arms 13.5″-17.5″. If your arm is 17.5″-20.5″, you will need a “thigh” or “Extra-large” cuff. If your arm is larger than 20.5″ your doctor may need to order a special XXL cuff. If you are borderline, take a reading with two cuff sizes. Note that most BP cuffs are printed with the measurement in centimeters, so multiply your inch measurement by 2.5. THIS REALLY MATTERS. Don’t let the nurse or doc tell you it doesn’t. It DOES. A too-small cuff can make your readings over 10 points higher than they actually are. Even if they insist, you can in fact refuse. Don’t let them bully you into putting an artificially high reading in your record. IT MATTERS. Know your arm measurement in inches and centimeters and stick to your guns.

-BP should be taken seated, with feet flat on the ground, not crossed, and the back supported. The non-reading arm should hang freely and as above, the reading arm should be supported correctly by the nurse or use a pillow etc.

-Don’t talk during the cuff pumping/measurement!! Neither the doc/nurse or patient should talk.

-Don’t put the cuff on over clothes.

-Don’t pump the cuff up too high. Lots of docs/nurses assume that if you are overweight you WILL have high BP and so pump up the cuff a lot. They should try a normal inflation first and if they can’t in fact get a reading because you do have high BP, then they can reinflate.

-If it hurts it’s probably going to raise your BP a little too.

-”White coat hypertension” exists too. This is where people get anxious about having their BP taken, but the BP is normal if measured at home by themselves, or checked using 24hr ambulatory monitoring.

By: ibeji

ibeji — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:43:51 +0000

@Judy J.: If your upper number was lower than your age, you would probably be in a coma from hypotension… (at least when using the usual metric mm Hg scale, where a typical healthy blood pressure is 120/80)

@all: Another useful thing to observe when measuring the blood pressure is the DIFFERENCE between upper systolic and lower diastolic value: this difference should be around 50.

Less difference means you are hypothyroid, a higher difference means you are hyperthyroid.

When you are unsure which of the two states you are actually in (e.g. because you have hypothyroid and hyperthyroid symptoms at the same time), this can give you a hint whether you should lower or upper your dose of thyroid hormones.

Hope this helps!

By: Judy J.

Judy J. — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:13:43 +0000

You have found the secret. Also note that as long as your lower number is below 80 you are doing good. Some doctors will not bother or be bothered if the upper number is a little high as it varies with exercise, medications, nervousness, heat, etc. One physician shared with me that once you are over 50 and as long as the upper number isn’t higher than your age and the lower number is less than 80 you should be ok. The arm position is very important as the heart has to work harder to push blood to extremities is the arm is lower or higher than the heart.
If you are like me with Fibromyalgia the pumping of the cuff too high causes so much pain that my upper number shoots up but my lower number usually is 70 to 75 and I am on 4 grains right now.