zuzu8

Angelface is right about normal BP being at or below 120/80.

However, your reading is by no means urgent. As Angelface says, 140/100 at a doctor's office could be what they call "white-coat hypertension"..due to the anxiety of just being there. Plus you must have gone in already anxious because of the headaches etc.
Your doctor should monitor you for a while over a period of a few months, unless your BP really escalates.. If it is still up next week, the appropriate thing for any physician to do would be to take a basic blood panel, urinalysis, an in-office EKG (takes only a few minutes) first. If all is normal, he/she should talk to you about lifestyle modifications and changes, and send you home again before prescribing ANY MEDS. 2 elevated BP doctor's office readings "doth not hypertension make"! There are sometimes secondary causes for high blood pressure (as opposed to what is known as essential or primary hypertension, which is what most people have)...Your doc may want to run further tests for adrenal gland dysfunction and/or tumor or renal artery stenosis. Or as angelface said, try a 24-hour BP monitor on you, although I think that may be a bit precipitous at this point. Now don't panic at the word "tumor"...it's known as a pheochromocytoma, quite rare and almost always benign. Remove tumor and bye bye hypertension. However, a pheo is usually accompanied by other symptoms. Still secondary causes should always be ruled out, especially if you are under 50.

Changes that can drastically alter BP for the better are most importantly weight loss if overweight. Also extremely important...exercise regularly, (even if it's brisk walking maybe 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes) and definitely lower sodium intake to 2400mgs a day total (that's only about 1 teaspoon salt).

READ LABELS for those mgs on all packaged and baked goods, breads, cereals, canned anything, ketchups, salad dressings, mayo, sauces etc. EVERYTHING seems to be loaded with sodium these days and the less you have in your diet, the better it is for BP. Lose the salt shaker. It's REALLY hard but one can get used to it within three weeks if you're vigilent. Lemon juice helps...so does garlic and any other seasoning you want.
Eat less fat. Cook fresh from scratch when possible. More fish and chicken than meat. Lots of fruit and vegetables.
ALSO cessation of smoking, less alcohol, less caffeine in any form.

If secondary hypertension has been ruled out and you adopt these changes, if, after a few months, your BP remains up, THEN and only then do you start talking medication.

If your doc wants to monitor you over a couple of months it would be a good idea to buy your own BP home monitor. Home readings are very important. True hypertension is when your BP is elevated and REMAINS so even in a relaxed environment and at rest.

Anyway, your #s right now are no cause for panic. You are really in a watch-wait-and-see mode.

My Rx for what it's worth for this week is try to R-E-L-A-X.

zuzu xxx