Commonly used arm positions can overestimate blood pressure readings: study

Measuring at a single point in time is so inaccurate due to things as simple as circadian variation of blood pressure (morning surge, night time dipping, etc). Not to mention acute stressors, arm positions etc. It's hard to put any weight on a single reading, and tbh doctors already know this.

After some hypertension issues last year I bought an inexpensive ambulatory monitor (Contec ABPM50) for experimenting. Turns out the biggest contributor was likely undiagnosed sleep apnea, infact research suggests up-to 50% of essential hypertension cases are probably apnea related [1].

Sleep apnea is ridiculously common and significant apnea in young/middle aged individuals (particularly women) is associated with an up-to 5x increase in all causes mortality [2].

If have poor sleep, mental health issues (PTSD/anxiety/depression) and borderline/hypertension you should absolutely order something like a WatchPAT test. The odds of it coming back positive are probably 80%+. The STOP-BANG questionnaire is also pretty good: https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/3992/stop-bang-score-obstructive...

1. Chaudhary SC, Gupta P, Sawlani KK, Gupta KK, Singh A, Usman K, et al. Obstructive sleep apnea in hypertension. Cureus [Internet]. 2023 Apr 27; Available from: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38229

2. Lavie P, Lavie L, Herer P. All-cause mortality in males with sleep apnoea syndrome: declining mortality rates with age. European Respiratory Journal [Internet]. 2005 Feb 28;25(3):514–20. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.05.00051504