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Commonly used arm positions can overestimate blood pressure readings: study

(medicalxpress.com)
330 points wglb | 1 comments | 14 Oct 24 17:57 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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iwaztomack ◴[14 Oct 24 19:51 UTC] No.41841199[source]▶
4~7 mmHg isn't going to make or break a hypertension diagnoses. 20~30 mmHg definitely.
replies(1): >>41841972 #
aksss ◴[14 Oct 24 21:03 UTC] No.41841972[source]▶
This shouldn't be downvoted.

If you're +-7 in your reading, don't panic yet. If you're there with a stage 1 or 2 hypertension diagnosis (130-140+ systolic), the margin of error discussed in this article isn't necessarily meaningless, but remarkably close to it - you need to address an issue there.

More as a PSA for you hardworking programmers and IT managers out there: if you have chronic hypertension, address it sooner than later. If you think to yourself that you'll start jogging daily starting next week, and your doctor is giving you the option for meds, just get on the damn meds. If you start an exercise regimen that can quantifiably manage it without the meds later, great. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Hypertension is the silent killer, and before it kills it contributes to all sorts of other bad problems and conditions.

replies(1): >>41842360 #
kayodelycaon ◴[14 Oct 24 21:46 UTC] No.41842360[source]▶
Hypertension can also make you feel like crap. It made my chest feel tight, which did not help my anxiety.
replies(1): >>41842675 #
1. aksss ◴[14 Oct 24 22:17 UTC] No.41842675[source]▶
Yeah, I empathize. Glad you're doing better now, assuming you are. I would get awful headaches and nausea (like hide in a dark room, photophobic, overly sensitive to sound, smells, wishing I could chop my head off). For years I didn't connect the two. Felt like getting the worst two-day hangover without having drank anything, but if I had measured my blood pressure at the time it would have been well over 150. I clocked in at 170 during one of those episodes when I went to urgent care. For years I had just dismissed as having overdid it the prior week and just needed to rest. Even if you can put up with the pain like a badass, it's not healthy for your system to be redlining so often. It does its damage in the aggregate.