Mark's Blog

If you are going to have a physical ailment, high blood pressure is one of the best because it is symptomless. You will feel fine and it won't interfere with your life. Of course someday you may keel over or the top of your head will blow off but you will feel fine right up until then.

Seriously, high blood pressure, like high colesterol, causes little or no problem until it has gone on for many years or decades. Blood pressure routinely jumps around from day to day, minute to minute. Also, so many people's blood pressures rise just because the doctor is taking it that they have given a name to the phenomenon -- White Coat Syndrome.

You probably should pay some attention to the situation. I would suggest that whenever anyone takes you blood pressure you note (as in write down) the exact number -- you might have to ask sometimes. Also, you could invest in a blood pressure monitor that you could use to get a better picture through lots of data.

There are some different ideas in different countries about blood pressure. For example, American and British doctors tend to believe that the lower the blood pressure the better (as long as you are not passing out every time you stand up) while I've read that German doctors actively medicate low blood pressure to raise it up to their acceptable level.

Do they measure blood pressure in the same units in France? In the U.S., some doctors are beginning to use 135/85 as a dividing line between "high normal" and "elevated" blood pressure. The most used standard, 140/90, was established, I believe, in the '60s. My doctor said that in the 1950's the standard was 150/100.

I presume the units are just different by 10. I may have symptoms in the form of headaches and dizzy spells. The headaches in the evening are mild and seemed to come from stress or overdoing it. Doesn't everybody have dizzy spells sometimes?

Maybe the standards are such that in the 1950s doctors didn't decide to do anything about blood pressure until it was in the dangerous range. That would be how the French treat dental problems now.

The doctor who does my work checkups asked if I go to the dentist regularly. I said no, that I used to go to the dentist every 6 mo. as a child in the US, but that since I've been in France, I've been going once every three years or so. She figured that if I didn't have toothaches or anything like that, I probably didn't need to go every 6 mo. She even thought every 6 mo. was probably overkill, perhaps less related to a need to see the dentist and more related to the dentist's need to make boat payments.

The earliest blood pressure readings I can remember were not long ago at the annual work checkup, 13/8 until this last checkup. So I must've been close to the high normal line if that means 130something/80something. Doctors never seemed to think that was worth investigating.

Again, the readings yesterday were highs of 13, 14, 15, and 16, over the space of perhaps 3 minutes. So that's high, but it's not entirely clear exactly what the real value is.

Joanne said they may end up asking me to wear the thing that takes your blood pressure over a 24-hour period. Dr. Rantz mentioned the White Coat Syndrome, and said I might need to take the 24-hour test to get an accurate view of what's going on.