What Causes Persistent High BP Levels?

Posted on Fri, 14 Oct 2016

Question: My mom has always had low BP but recently, she has she was diagnosed with very high BP (160/110) and even after a complete health check up, doctors were not able to tell us why she had such high BP. After the high-BP incident, she sometimes feels too tired. I am exploring the possibilities to having a digital BP monitor at home so that we can check her BP often. Seeking recommendations from doctors on BP monitors we can buy as we find it difficult to use teh traditional monitor.

Answered by Dr. Prasad (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Not a bad idea to use BP monitors...

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

I went through the details. If your mom had recorded high BP numbers on more than 2 occasions, then it is not a bad idea to buy and regularly monitor blood pressures. There are various digital BP monitors available to choose from. You can buy one which is easy to handle / use. Please note that almost all BP monitor would show a fluctuation of 10mmHg from actual readings.

If there is no known cause of high BP, then she has essential or primary hypertension which is not uncommon. If her BP is above 140/90 mmHg on more than two occasions, it is better to consider starting antihypertensive drugs.

Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if you were looking for any other information.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar