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I'm a thin guy and they fuck up my blood pressure about 50% of the time. And one time at a hospital the thing they snap on your finger to read heart rate was screwy and said I had 215 bpm at rest...never seen so many nurses rush into the room at once.
It might be worth getting a bp machine for you to monitor yourself at home if it worries you. Less chance of screw ups.
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For what it is worth I have noticed my blood pressure is way down after I lift. I take it all the time. I think it reduces stress...at least for me. If I don't lift for 3-4 days it will creep up 10 points.
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Was the blood pressure the only "abnormal" aspect of your stress test? I had a stress test and they didn't even mention what my BP was at the time, and I'm on blood pressure meds too (40mg of diovan every other day). The cardiologist was more interested in the pictures they got from the radioactive stuff they inject you with.
BTW, has anyone here checked their blood pressure after a work set of squats? I wonder if it's typical for it to be higher than your reading during your stress test.
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I donate blood regularly and usually have BP in the "high normal" range, 90/140 or thereabouts with the occasional spike to about 150.
Occasionally the nurse notices that I have larger arms than most and uses a larger cuff. Whenever that happens, my BP goes down to about 80/125. So I'm not worried.
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I haven't seen someone 210/120 who was actually 130/80 on a manual or on an invasive BP (arterial line). There is certainly opportunity for error, but if your BP is very high then it would probably still be high (perhaps with a different absolute number) using a different method. Still, chronic hypertension requires successive readings on different occasions, and that ought to corroborate the diagnosis.
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I am kinda relieved after reading this thread
I did my own BP test with a machine at my gym and it said 160/120 I literately almost (ironically) had a heart attack.
I was at 257lbs and now weigh 240lbs (Not trained in 6 weeks due to moving back to uk and a lot of messing around) and stand abaout 5'10/11
not great
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Others have made some good points about the likely source of measurement error - I am also positive you would need a larger cuff and I am also sure you would have noticed if they used one because it rarely gets used without it being mentioned.
The main issue I have is that, at least based on the information you provided, your BP response to the test was not at all abnormal and not nearly sufficiently hypertensive to justify stopping the test. It can be difficult to interpret cardiovascular responses in isolation from other information such as symptoms and ECG changes, but I’m assuming the lack of any information you provided about this sort of stuff means that none of these things that might change the context and interpretation were present. It’s also true that a SBP of 210 while at 3 METS says something very different to one measured while at 15 METS, but even if yours was achieved at a low exercise capacity, neither an increase of just 40 mmHg or an absolute reading of 210 is enough to justify stopping a test.
Related to that is the decision to even call for the stress test in the first place. At 49 and overweight it isn’t an outrageous call, but without symptoms (and a heavy suggestion of improper BP measurement) it is a little dubious. That they would then terminate the test without getting any meaningful information (again, I’m assuming the absence of you mentioning things like ECG changes or symptoms = the absence of them occurring) is ridiculous and not somewhere I would be willing to go back to for further (more expensive) tests or whose advise I would be willing to listen to.
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Thanks for all the responses. I'm feeling much more confident in just continuing the program. Especially given that I'm 4 weeks in and have only been feeling better since I started.
I understand the potential for bad readings, but I'm also assuming that my pressure is still too high. I'm walking in addition to my lifting workouts, so I expect that will help. What sort of dietary changes do you recommend? Aside from 'reduce your salt intake' I haven't gotten much guidance yet.
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Who told you to reduce your salt intake?
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