Blood Pressure in Heat

[manlymatt83]

So we had a CRISIS at work tonight.

Right after the crisis I had a headache, and I had someone take my blood pressure.

Now I used to have high blood pressure, but its been normal lately.

Anyway, my pulse was normal (78) but my blood pressure was 170/80. Bottom number was normal, top number not.

After a few minutes of relaxing it was back to normal.

Is this normal? Is blood pressure supposed to raise like that when you are in "crisis" freaking out mode? Are bodies able to handle spikes like that normally?

-Matt

 

[xtknight]

You're asking ATOT for medical advice....

In all seriousness, your blood pressure definitely rises when you're anxious/worried/stressed/paniced.

 

[Ika]

If my Bio teacher was right (and there's no guarantee on that one), the bottom number is the more important one. And, from my own personal conjecture (which is probably less guaranteeable), adrenaline causes your blood vessels to contract, and because there's the same amount of blood flowing through smaller vessels, it makes sense that BP should increase.

 

[mattpegher]

Yes your blood pressure usually rises in response to stress or exercise. Problem is you say you used to have high blood pressure. Unless you lost a lot of weight and started exercising, it more likely you still have hypertension and it may be undetected. Have you checked with your doc lately? It is good that it dropped back to normal but you should still get a check up. Undetected hypertension leads to heart and kidney damage, years before your realize it. Then it is too late to do anything about it.

 

[TraumaRN]

Yea your blood pressure is supposed to go up in response to stress and whatnot.

Fight or flight response.

To put in overly simple terms. It's your body shutting down the non-essential systems while attempting to over activate others.

Vaso-constriction, increase in HR, increase in BP, increase in respiration, pupils dilate etc.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: mattpegher
Yes your blood pressure usually rises in response to stress or exercise. Problem is you say you used to have high blood pressure. Unless you lost a lot of weight and started exercising, it more likely you still have hypertension and it may be undetected. Have you checked with your doc lately? It is good that it dropped back to normal but you should still get a check up. Undetected hypertension leads to heart and kidney damage, years before your realize it. Then it is too late to do anything about it.

I work out daily and have lost 50+ pounds, and still losing weight. My blood pressure has been MUCH better. It averages 130/75, which isn't PERFECT, but its better.

My heart is fine too. I get it checked yearly.

So this was a legitiment spike...