1. Community
  2. Heart Health
  3. Hypertension

Treatments for Stress Induced Hypertension

Posted , 5 users are following.

PBF2.0
PBF2.0

I am having a rather specific problem that is causing a series of other problems.

I'll start off by saying a month ago, my blood pressure numbers ranged from 120/70 to 140/90 on a typical day. On a bad day, I could take a reading and they might be up about 150/95.

I would always check my blood pressure right after meditating or sitting for 10 minutes and calming down before I took it.

I would not take my daily blood pressure pill (diltiazem 120mg) until after I had checked my pressure. I always check my pressure at 11am and take my pills at lunch time. So all of these readings are 24 hours after my last pill and they were still in the good to fair range.

About a week ago that changed. I was incredibly anxious (I do have anxiety disorder) and even after meditation I was still really tweaked. I figured at worst it would be 150/100. However, I checked and it was 160/130. Worst mistake I ever made was once reading that this qualified as an emergency situation which made things worse.

A friend of mine who is a cardiac nurse calmed me down, told me to go ahead and take an anxiety pill and calm down. I did and waited 30 minutes. I checked again, 140/90.

The next couple of days I was back to normal, but the "what ifs" began creeping into my mind and I developed a significant fear of checking my blood pressure to the point that my heart would race just because I was putting the cuff on.

I got an appointment with my doctor to discuss this, and things got worse as my white coat syndrome kicked in and sent me up to 180/120. She reassured me that such a reading on its own was not anything to worry about immediately, but was simply a warning sign to work on my blood pressure. Before I left, she checked me again and it was already falling (150/85)

Blood pressure medicine doesn't seem to help keep it down as another anxiety spell a few days ago did cause it to go up and then it came back down to 135/75 an hour later.) But blood pressure medicine does make me feel bad since, most of the time, I don't need it as it's only when I am anxious that it goes up.

So, does anyone know of any methods that can help to keep blood pressure at bay without dropping it too low or does anyone else suffering with this frustrating type of blood pressure?

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • joshuapryce1987
    joshuapryce1987 PBF2.0

    Posted

    Lots of carbohydrates and prayer will do the trick, you have to find a way of addressing the stress.

  • anders70981
    anders70981 PBF2.0

    Posted

    Did you have anxiety before starting on blood pressure medicine?

    A gadget i find really cool is Oura Ring. It measures your HRV. You ability to balance your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

    Once you see what a Red Bull Zero before bedtime do to to your HRV. You stop drinking that s**t.

    Maybe you are eating/drinking something that brings you into the sympathetic nervous system.

    Anyway its cool to see the effects of ones meditations

Back to top

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.