Can any one feel their pressure rise? What does it feeel like to you? Can your blood pressure be high and you not know it because it goes down when you relax? Are relaxed readings accurate readings?

Can any one feel their pressure rise? What does it feeel like to you? Can your blood pressure be high and you not know it because it goes down when you relax?

I've taken about 16,000 blood pressure readings, over the past seven years, which averages out to be about 6 readings per day. I log my BP readings into a data base, with comments, by day and hour, and then am able to produce BP charts and reports by hour, by day, by week, by month, etc.

That said, I almost NEVER know what my blood pressure is going to read. If the reading is very low, it surprises me. If it is high, it surprises me.

The only exception to this is when my blood pressure gets up to about 175/115, or above. I definitely know when it is too high. I'll get tingling in my feet. My chest gets tight and uncomfortable. I will also feel sickly.

Are relaxed readings accurate readings?

If your BP monitor is accurate, and you take your BP correctly, then all readings are accurate. If you can bring your BP down by relaxing then it gives you a great tool for lowering your blood pressure.

I think it can vary from individual to individual.

With me, I feel it once it gets around 140/90. I can feel it in my head, kind of a full feeling,, or it might just leave me with a BP headache.

Mostly I can feel it, not directly, but by my stress or anxiety level and by past experience with readings at that level of stress. I can guarantee that if my 58-year-old stepdaughter again mentions the possibility of moving in with me, for example, that my systolic pressure will be over 150 for several hours. LOL! Mostly I can tell by the tense feeling in my stomach and my muscle tension, especially the tension in my shoulder muscles. If my muscles are super, super relaxed, (which doesn't happen often), I can be relatively sure that my systolic is under 115 and probably under 110. I can't tell much between 120 and 140.

Many people can't feel it, though. My late husband could never feel it until he started to feel dizzy, and that didn't happen until his systolic got to 180 or so.

I've felt it ONCE, when I got horribly upset and angry... I felt my face flush really bad, then got a dull headache (very dull, more like a "funny" feeling). After I relaxed a bit I took my BP and it was 165/98, so it must have been a LOT higher at the point I had the symptom hit. (and I am on BP meds and usually run low 120's over high 70's.) I'm assuming that feeling was blood pressure shooting up.

I can almost always feel it because, like Uff-da, I know what kinds of things affect it. If I am relaxed and yawny it will be LOW. If I'm anxious or worried it will be HIGH. If I feel bloated it will be high. If I feel dry, low. If I'm chilled it will be high; warm and cozy, low.

If I am raging either inwardly or outwordly about something beyond my control, or concerned about the imagined awful effect of some future event>>>Very high. That kind of peak can't be brought down with any of the meds, even in combination, that I've ever tried...and I've tried a BUNDLE of them (and still have them all in my closet.) I guess when the adrenals pour out epinephrine and norepinephrine and the pituitatry starts pumping antidiuretic and vasoconstricting hormones (in case my "enemy" stabs me) I'd better FLEE or FIGHT...or at least that's how my ancestors got themselves wired up this way. I guess that's why they invented GYMS!

Thanks for the replys but I was wondering how do you know if you have (high blood pressure)? Is it just by your relaxed readings? Or is relaxed readings not showing true hypertension.

Thank you

In situations like when I go to the doctor or in stressful situations absolutely. I can tell when my B/P will be lower (108/61) & I can tell when it will be higher as well (130/83). They say that if you have High Blood Pressure that it is a silent killer, but I can tell when mine will be higher This is why I feel that it is more anxiety related.

I believe your relaxed readings are considered your baseline "normal" readings, and they determine if you are classified as hypertensive. If your relaxed readings are above 140/90 (the definition of first stage hypertension), then your anxious, stressed, and all other readings will be higher than that. In other words, almost none of your readings would ever be lower than that. The constant force of blood pressure over 140/90 is considered damaging to your body over time, leading to BAD THINGS.

People with relaxed baseline blood pressure of less than 120/80, will have periods with blood pressure higher than that, and that is normal. Their pressure does not stay constantly elevated.

Does that help answer your question?

They call hypertension the silent killer because most people don't know when they have it. There is not an easily recognizable symptom. Everyone's pressure fluctuates up and down, some more than others. I think those of us who take our pressure often MAY learn to recognize the symptoms which correlate with high readings, but let's face it. Few people who don't already know they have high blood pressure are going to take their pressure often enough to learn that from experience - unless they are a hypochondriac. And they would have to start taking their readings when they still had enough normal readings to recognize the difference.

I suspect most people learn they have hypertension when they go to the doctor for something else or for a routine physical. A few will go because of unexplained dizziness, which turns out to be hypertension-related. But for most people, dizziness doesn't happen until their pressure is really bad. It would be better to catch it sooner.

Well said!!!! If you can feel it than anxiety plays a role. You make great points Uff Da.

This sounds crazy but I hear loud sounds of crickets in the room.

I can almost always feel it because, like Uff-da, I know what kinds of things affect it. If I am relaxed and yawny it will be LOW. If I'm anxious or worried it will be HIGH. If I feel bloated it will be high. If I feel dry, low. If I'm chilled it will be high; warm and cozy, low.

If I am raging either inwardly or outwordly about something beyond my control, or concerned about the imagined awful effect of some future event>>>Very high. That kind of peak can't be brought down with any of the meds, even in combination, that I've ever tried...and I've tried a BUNDLE of them (and still have them all in my closet.) I guess when the adrenals pour out epinephrine and norepinephrine and the pituitatry starts pumping antidiuretic and vasoconstricting hormones (in case my "enemy" stabs me) I'd better FLEE or FIGHT...or at least that's how my ancestors got themselves wired up this way. I guess that's why they invented GYMS!

Guess our ancestors must have been related cause thats exactly how my BP reacts.
Cass

Once, when my husband I were doing our taxes, I saw how much we had to pay in. It upset me so much that my blood pressure shot sky high and I had to lay down and take a pill.

I knew it because my eye started throbbing.

I get lightheadedness if the bottom number is higher than 100, and if the top number is above 180. I do not know why this happens but I almost always know when it is high.

Take care ,
Leslie