I heard from client not long ago describing her spouse’s predicament with blood pressure readings. When he takes the reading at home it is somewhere between normal and slightly elevated, but at the doctor’s office it reads high.
She was inquiring about the role nerves or stress might be playing . Her husband said he doesn’t feel nervous but admitted that perhaps he wasn’t aware of just how stressful the doctor’s visits might really be at least unconsciously.
This particular scenario is described as “White Coat Syndrome” or “White Coat Hypertension.”
A person’s blood pressure may be raised in either a doctor’s office or even an office setting. However it reads normal at home. It may affect 10 to 20 percent of the adult population.
Some of the problem could be attributed to errors when the blood pressure is taken. The most common error made by medical personnel is taking blood pressure with a cuff that is too small. This can result in a false high reading.
The question to pose oneself is: Does this syndrome create a health risk? The answer is – yes. While the risk of an event is lower than with chronic high blood pressure, it’s risk is higher than normal.
What is important is to know when one’s blood pressure is increasing and for how long each time this happens. If the only time one’s blood pressure goes up is the occasional doctor’s office visit and for only a few minutes, this probably isn’t an issue. If, however, one is experiencing this phenomena several times per day, it could lead to chronic high blood pressure.
A common occurrence is that many people simply decide that they must just be suffering from White Coat Syndrome.
This isn’t a surprise, as most of us would prefer NOT to be suffering from a serious medical condition like chronic high blood pressure.
To determine what condition you are in fact suffering from, I stronly recommend that you see your doctor. Regardless of the outcome, I believe my all natural High Bood Pressure program will help you. The success of this program has been amazing – it really works!
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