High blood pressure is epidemic. (If four people are having dinner and they're all old enough to drive, at least one is being treated for hypertension and another likely has it. If they're all older than 65, two or three of them have high blood pressure.)
Or not. There's new evidence that up to 25% of people being treated for hypertension don't have it. Why the misdiagnosis? Blood pressure monitoring can be inaccurate.
You've likely heard of "white coat hypertension," the blood pressure jump you get just from being around docs. That's only part of what can mess up blood pressure readings. Rushing, crossing your legs, a full bladder, talking and having coffee, cola, alcohol, food or tobacco within 30 minutes of being cuffed (the list goes on) can affect your readings, too.
High blood pressure is epidemic. (If four people are having dinner
and they're all old enough to drive, at least one is being treated
for hypertension and another likely has it. If they're all older
than 65, two or three of them have high...
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Dr. Michael Roizen answered:High blood pressure is epidemic. (If four people are having dinner and they're all old enough to drive, at least one is being treated for hypertension and another likely has it. If they're all older than 65, two or three of them have high blood pressure.)
