This past weekend I bought a car from Eric’s wife, Shana, and spent some time hanging out with Eric, Nate and Patrick. I won’t be doing that again! Just before I left, Eric brought out his Sphygmomanometer and let Nate use it. He and Patrick both got readings that neither found out of line, so I decided to try it. On the first try, my blood pressure measured something like 186/101. Shocked, I quickly took another reading. 160/101. Hrm… Maybe I wasn’t using it right. I adjusted the fit and tried again. Back up above 180. Now, I know I am overweight, don’t get enough exercise and probably inherited a tendency to high blood pressure, but this was ridiculous. The three other guys took turns giving me advice on getting it down and telling me not too worry, I couldn’t be that bad off. Just before I left, I half jokingly said I’d try the sphygmomanometer at my local Wal-Mart. I had enough time on the drive back home to mull it over that I drove straight to the Wal-Mart. When I got there, I took a couple of readings that hovered around 140/90. Not great, but much better than 180! Today, I tried again. 127/73 (pulse under 60). Phew! It must be the company I was keeping. I’ll try again tomorrow on yet another sphygmomanometer. I’ll get this thing below 100, yet!
health
according to the notes I have you don’t really want to go below 100. I usually get 110 when I go to donate blood and that is considered quite laid back low. The following are the currently accepted cut-off lines for reviewing one’s health habits:
Blood pressure: below 130/80 mg/dl
So your last reading was borderline.
Personally I found my 27 points above my usual 110 this weekend … after I stayed up very late, got up early and had a “pay attention” weekend of activity.
Rest, quiet and such brought it down the next day.
Blood glucose:
before meals: 90-130
2 hours after start of a meal, less than 180
A1C below 130/80 mg/dl
Cholesterol
LDL: below 100 mg/dl
HDL: men above 40 mg/dl ….. women above 50 mg/dl
triglycerides: below 150 mg/dl
Blood pressure hardware
Isn’t that just like a software guy – “Must be bad hardware!”
Re: Blood pressure hardware
Tony, you really made me laugh! Perfect!