Commonly used arm positions can overestimate blood pressure readings: study

There's definitely a huge variance in blood pressure readings depending on posture, relaxation, arm position, recent activity, etc. If you buy a blood pressure monitor, it's really interesting to see how "random" a single reading at the doctors' is, and how large your fluctuation throughout the day is.

That being said, it really makes me wonder about studies that correlate blood pressure with other things. Is the blood pressure really being measured "correctly" in all those studies? Or not?

In other words, if your "true correct" blood pressure is lower than what the doctor normally takes, but then a lot of the studies are based on real-life "incorrect" higher blood pressures, then don't you similarly want an "incorrect" higher reading for consistency? Or are the studies always really done with far more accurate blood pressure readings, where the patient sits still for 5 min beforehand, keeps their legs uncrossed, is totally free of stress and anxiety, didn't exercise beforehand, etc.?

My wife had a Cryo Chamber Therapy for a few weeks and had to measure pressure and pulse before each session so they let her in. After about a week she was refused entry because her pressure was too high (when she measured it at home - it was normal).

Since then she had problems getting admited every time, and she started to fear the measurement (she had to drive there during work and do overtime later).

She started arguing with the guy and wasted like 5 days driving there and back during work without having another session because the pressure and pulse were too high (despite both being OK at home).

Eventually she went to another person in that hospital to measure her pressure. It was perfect. But when the guy near the entrance to the cryo chamber measured it - it was too high to let her enter.

They tried different instruments and the difference was the same. When the guy measured it - it was too high. When somebody else measured it - it was fine. Finally they let her do the cryo chamber without the guy permission :)

We assumed the difference was just that she was anxious and frustrated when she's seen the guy, but now I wonder if the difference was the position in which he measured the pressure.

Had the exact same thing happen when I was doing a Ketamine therapy thing a while back, and I definitely think the anxiousness about the reading had something to do with it.

I've always had perfectly okay blood pressure whenever I have it done at a regular doctor's appointment, so I think knowing that the reading actually matters definitely increases my blood pressure. Ended up getting a doctor's note saying "they don't actually have high blood pressure they are just reacting normally to possibly having to be sent home and reschedule" more or less.