Variation

[neptuno]

I'm monitoring my blood pressure at the moment. There seems to be quite a variation throughout the day. I know 120/80 is the ideal but mine has been as high as 144/90 and down to 127/81. My activity level is fairly constant so I wonder why the variation ?

[roger]

BP is extremely mental state sensitive, nep, so I'd guess that as first suspect. Maybe worth trying twenty minutes of mindfulness. Assuming the session achieves it's objective, then I'd expect your BP at the end to be at its lowest. One problem is that if you start to get anxious about your BP, the very act of taking it will make it shoot up. So in the hope of easing the possibility of 'measuring anxiety', be assured that the highest reading you mentioned is nothing to worry about regardless of what your GP might say. Until the early 1960's, any GP was happy with your age + 100 for the systolic, and during the period up until then heart disease was WAY lower than it is these days, when everyone and their dog seems to be on BP meds - makes you wonder what's going on!