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NotThamesWater
Can anyone help with two questions:
I get an anxiety spike when I take my blood pressure, which is not ideal. I can feel my heart starting to race and get sweaty palms. I bought a home BP monitor last week. Does anyone have experience of this and advice for managing it when testing? I'm hoping I will just get used to doing it if I test each morning and won't have an anxiety response.
Can anyone share practical experience and success in reducing BP (excluding medication)? I think a proximate cause is stress, but I haven't had any detailed medical testing.
I tested this morning and BP was 116 over 83. Pulse was 110, consistent with anxiety due to the test. My garmin read of resting HR during the day is 40 to 50 BPM.
For background, I had blood pressure taken on clinic along with blood tests for something else pre Christmas and the BP reading was 120 over 87, pulse 106. The other health issue I was addressing was causing anxiety (thankfully all clear), and it was also a stressful time at work. Given the elevated diastolic reading I wanted to monitor it.