Afternoon Peaks in Blood Pressure - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

macmai · 09-27-2009, 04:06 PM

Hello all,

I am entirely new to this forum, but was hoping to seek some insight into my current situation. For reference, I am male, 35 years old, 5' 8", currently 200 lbs. I have been extremely sedentary these past 5+ years, and have recently lost 26 lbs. (used to be 226 lbs) from excercise, and proper (not crash) diet.

About 6 weeks ago, I went to my GP's office for another reason, but while there, they said my BP was high (152/90). They told me to monitor it over the next several days. My readings were still high, and the doctor initially wanted to get me on Lisinopril. Oh, please also keep in mind that I had just returned from an overseas trip to China, not slept much, and stressed out.

Long story short, I asked the doc if we could try weight loss, diet and exercise before going on meds. He said we'll give it 3 months since he's not sure how long the HBP has been an issue.

Well, that was about 6 weeks ago now. Now, I notice that my readings in the morning range from 119-127 systolic over 79-85 diastolic. This morning was 121/82.

However, my issue seems that for the last several days, I see a consistent peak in the afternoon ranging from 138-152 systolic over 87-90 diastolic. For a while, I would only get these peaks occasionally, but now it seems much more consistent. This afternoon was 152/89.

I am not sure if this is just becoming a real BP trend, or if I'm freaking myself out from taking my afternoon BP now.

In the end, I'm recording this to take back to my GP in two weeks, but wanted to get your insight on this forum.

So really, my questions are:

1) Are these afternoon peaks normal? That is, is a peak to 150 systolic dangerous?

2) Is antihypertension medication safe for someone to start at a young age of 35?

Any help is much appreciated.

Teacupforme · 09-28-2009, 08:31 PM

Most people have higher BP in the late afternoon and then it drops off going into the evening and again lower while we sleep.

BP has a natural rythym and it goes up and down all day.

I started meds at 33. having to do it all over again, I think that I may have waited a while, because my real issue was uncontrolled anxiety/ panic attacks.

I would drive my BP quite high. The problem was I had anxiety all day so they put me on BP meds to control my BP. If you have anxiety all day and your BP is up all the time due to the anxiety its just as bad for you as essential hypertension, though the treatment should have been different.

All meds have side effects and some of these BP meds can cause wieght gain and fatigue. It is better not to have to take meds, so I would look at other options first.

Weight loss,cut out caffiene,reduce salt increase potassium,relaxation,exercise.

macmai · 09-29-2009, 06:02 AM

Teacup - Thanks for breaking the ice on the replies. I was starting to wonder if I had written my post in an offensive manner or something. Many thanks.

When you say you would drive your BP "pretty high", around what numbers systolic/diastolic are you talking about? I was just curious (if it's not too pesonal of a question) for reference.

I am having that exact debate with myself. I am wondering if my BP is secondary to my anxiety (very anxious and stressed out person right now). I agree that high BP, regardless of cause, is still dangeroud.

However, I'm wondering if it's better to treat the anxiety rather than the BP directly (as in your case). Not sure if anxiety meds are any safer either.

BP yesterday afternoon was 135/91. This morning, 120/78. It's a roller coaster sometimes!

Thanks again for the reply.

Teacupforme · 09-30-2009, 12:42 AM

No problem at all. When I heard the words "anxietY", I used to think people have lost their minds. I didn't understand it. Due to some personal issues, I started suffering the symptoms of anxiety about 4 1/2 years ago. I refused to beleive I had anxiety. I spent 3 years having every type of test and examination done thinking I was suffering from a mystery illness. When my GP said I had anxiety, I refused to beleive him and I had no idea how this could have happened to a normal person like me.

At first my BP was 140/90. I use to think that this was incredibly high BP for a woman in her early thirties and I went to the ER a couple times. Then I started obsessing over my BP (as most of us do with anxiety) and checked it like 20 times a day. The more anxious I got the greater the panic attacks the greater the frequency. because I would take so many readings back to back my reading were all over the place and they were probably all wrong anyways. My highest reading was 170/105. Most of my panic attacks I get in high 150's -165 systolic. Then it can crash down in minutes after the panic attack goes away. Also if I take a valium it will go down very quickly too.

I read that the maneuver that weight lifters do in the olympics can make their BP go over 300 systolic. So I started to relax about my BP. My dad had a stroke when he was 52. He had BP of 180-200 over a 15 year period. He never took his pills.

This is why I obsessed over my own pressures.

One day I said to myself, if my fate in life is to drop dead because my BP got too high during one of my panic attacks so be it. I got sick and tired of checking my BP obsessivly and worrying about my BP.

Since then I have relaxed and my BP is 130/74 on most occasions.

I realize that BP goes up and down all the time and we just cant control it all the time. It's not the occassional high pressure spikes that cause issues but prolonged untreated hypertension like my dads.

Hope this helps.

macmai · 09-30-2009, 07:47 AM

Teacup - it really does help, not only the information you shared, but just the fact of sharing your experience with me. Sometimes, esp at the age of 35, I feel very alone in going through this. Never would have suspected that I would have to deal with this so soon...but here I am.

Obsessing over BP...I can DEFINITELY understand. I think I'm giving myself white-coat-symdrome (is that even possible???) :-) for my afternoon readings. I'm still showing a morning trend of 120/79-82, but evening (yesterday) was 140/91 or some such. That was after coming home from work (traffic of course), laying down for 20 mins, then taking my BP.

Oh well, not sure what the doc will say on the 9th, but maybe I'm heading for a low-dose type of a treatment. I'm still working very hard at losing more weight as I'm still overweight after having lost 27 lbs to-date. Perhaps I can still get off the meds after a while. We'll see.

Thanks again for sharing. You've been a big help.