If I take my blood pressure twice in a row, which number do I pay attention to? -

I have recently begun medication for postpartum hypertension. I have a home automatic blood pressure machine. The last 3 times I have taken it, I took it twice in a row, and got different numbers from the first time, BUT the second number is pretty consistent. My numbers have been: 1. 119/99, then 123/83 (Yesterday morning) 2. 136/90, then 123/83 (Yesterday evening) 3. 130/96, then 123/86 (This morning) So the second trial is pretty consistent (and obviously the one I m hoping is correct!). The two trials are just a few minutes apart. Thanks!

The numbers you are reading are all equally valid. None is either quot;rightquot; or quot;wrongquot;. The way the cardiovascular system works is that the two pressures you re measuring (as well as your pulse rate) are constantly hunting . That is, they vary all the time, continuously up and down in value in the same way as your hands do on the steering-wheel of a car even if you re driving along a 300 mile dead-straight highway. This process ensures that they maintain an equilibrium set by the brain and nervous control systems to deliver the correct blood-flow (quot;supplyquot;) to meet quot;demandquot; from the organs. If you do some gentle exercise you ll find they ll change , the pulse rate going up, the systolic rising too, and the diastolic being a bit odd. What it does depends entirely on the condition of your heart and arteries. Sadly I must also disappoint you too though. Of themselves the figures are pretty well meaningless, because the readings are NOT your quot;blood pressurequot; even though your doctors (touchingly but naively ! ) think they are. It s simple to prove this. By dividing your Mean Arterial Pressure, which is (Pd + {Ps-Pd}/3) by your resting quot;total Peripheral Resistancequot; (= 0.025 approximately) you ll arrive at a figure wildly adrift (much lower in fact) from the 5000 millilitres/minute which you should arrive at, because that is roughly how much blood -on average-, flows round the body of a normal, healthy, human adult (slightly less for a small female than a big man). So clearly the figures your monitor gives aren t real. They re a bit like shadows of objects thrown up on a screen, when they re back-lit..... imagine a cat and a mouse behind a rice-paper screen. Both are illuminated by a candle. The cat may look smaller than the mouse, but it isn t. It s precisely the same with your monitor figures. They simply aren t true figures. BUT, (and this is very important quot;butquot;) although the figures themselves are not in themselves meaningful, CHANGES in them most certainly are. I don t mean the minute to minute, hour to hour -nor even the day to day variations. I mean if you suddenly observe a steady upward (or downward) drift, or step-change, which is maintained, and has no obvious explanation, then this DOES indicate something s happened. It may be important - it may not; but that is when you go see your doctor.

Thanks! - I ve starred your question because it goes to the very core of the problem. How can doctors cure something they don t even understand? Report Abuse

nothing beats the accuracy of manually getting your blood pressure. these automated machines are prone to getting wrong readings. find someone to get your blood pressure manually. you ll then see which reading to pay attention to in the future.