I didn't reverse-engineer the protocol for my blood pressure monitor in 24 hours

I got it when an eye clinic wanted to do my blood pressure (which is kind of weird in itself), which they did shortly after the glaucoma test which never works for me because I have an overdeveloped blink reflex and it turned up high.

It really amazes me how people whose job it is to take blood pressure don’t recognize the stress situations that people are in might result in abnormal readings.

I had an astoundingly high blood pressure reading last year when I tore my bicep the day after the election and dragged myself to the ER. The staff freaked. I was like, "I had a normal reading two weeks ago in my doctor's office and I'm really in an awful lot of pain and worry right now". But it still earned me the "oh shit hypertension you must do extra pre-surgical clearance".

It was kind of interesting watching my blood pressure tick down back to normal over the course of about 4 days though.

I guess the lesson is don't rip your bicep off, it will transiently elevate your BP. ;)

If they’re doing surgery it doesn’t matter why you have hypertension, or how temporary it is. The high blood pressure causes complications for the surgery itself.

Beyond any clinical reason that your eye clinic might want to know your blood pressure (your vascular system is pretty important to your vision) - they may have been incentivized by the CMS to track blood pressure via the MIPS program which ties provider payments to specific documentation and screening measures.

AKA - the government might pay your eye clinic more if they screen you for high blood pressure. (Among other things).

That makes intuitive sense, if blood is under higher pressure they're going to need to work harder to prevent you from losing too much blood I would imagine.

Basically, yeah, that’s one of the concerns. Drug dosages and other things are affected too, but the most simple concern is “if we accidentally hit something and you start bleeding, above a certain blood pressure it won’t stop.”

Edit: Well, it will stop bleeding… once you lose enough blood.

> It really amazes me how people whose job it is to take blood pressure don’t recognize the stress situations that people are in might result in abnormal readings.

I've had a doctor measure my heart rate right after remarking on my "elevated HR during intake" (I walked there and I was running late), after telling me some slightly distressing news on what was already a very stressful day, knowing about my white coat anxiety, and right around the time of peak effects of stimulant medication which they also know about. Wouldn't you believe it, my heart rate was high (110)!

Then I got a front seat to watch their confirmation bias kick in, and have them make some really faulty assumptions based on this bad information. They were quite sure that I had developed a certain medical condition but the lab tests quickly proved them completely wrong.

110 isn't high, though?

It would be pretty high for a resting heart rate.

I tend to always have a higher heart rate whenever I'm at a doctor's office compared to when I've tested resting at home (in the 100-110 range compared to 90-95), and my experience is that anything in the triple digits will tend to get some concern from whoever is taking the measurements. It's gotten to the point that I need to preemptively tell them before they take the measurements that yes, it's going to be high, but I've seen a cardiologist about it, and they didn't consider it to be an issue given that it's consistently lower when tested in other circumstances. Without that disclaimer before hand, whoever takes the measurement often will grow concerned even a rate of something like 105 and feel the need to test again and ask a lot of probing questions. At this point I have to imagine that the level of scrutiny has only made my heart rate go up even more during those tests, making the disclaimer even more necessary to avoid my visits getting derailed.

Oh sorry, I thought BP.

Sorry, I thought BP, please disregard my comment.

High enough blood pressure for long enough can damage the blood vessels in the retina.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/25100-hyperte...

I am curious as to what constitutes an 'astoundingly high blood pressure', if you don't mind sharing.

I’d like to think it has to do more with hypertensive retinopathy, but...