You may have gone to the doctor, have him/her take your blood pressure and then sighed with relief when you were told, “All Good Now” or you’ve only “Borderline High Blood Pressure”.

But be warned. Your doctor might be giving you a false sense of safety.

A large percentage of the people who have acceptable blood pressure readings (or blood pressure that has been controlled by medications) – actually have merely ‘masked’ high blood pressure. And this high blood pressure can be more dangerous than anything else.

A recent research review covering four countries and over 5,000 people revealed that monitoring blood pressure frequently at home picks up the so called ‘hidden hypertension’.

More than ten percent of people have a strange case of high blood pressure. When taken at the doctor’s office, the blood pressure is normal or close to normal.

However, in the other environment like home or work, their blood pressure levels are actually high or even super high.

This occurrence is known as masked high blood pressure and it is very difficult for doctors to detect it.

To see if masked high blood pressure affects the increase of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and stroke, study investigators looked at the data from five previous studies of home-monitored blood pressure, conducted in Finland, Greece, Uruguay and Japan.

The researchers categorized blood pressure readings into a few categories:

“Optimal”: Top number below 120 and the bottom number below 80;

“Normal”: The top number: 120-129/ the bottom number 80-84;

“High normal” The top number 130-139/ the bottom number 85-89;

“Mild hypertension” The top number 140-159/ the bottom number 90-99;

“Severe hypertension” A top number of 160 or more and bottom number of 100 or more.

The researchers considered an occurrence of masked hypertension when home blood pressure readings revealed a BP of 130/85 or higher readings at the doctor’s office did not meet the criteria.

The results of the research revealed that 5 percent of patients with “Optimal” blood pressure measurements at the doctor’s office, 18.4 percent with “Normal” readings and 30.4 percent with high-normal readings at the clinics had revealed hidden hypertension at home.

An 8 year follow up revealed that study participants with hidden hypertension had about 2.24 to 2.65 times increased risk for developing stroke and heart attack compared to those who had a healthy blood pressure.

The easiest way to avoid masked high blood pressure is to monitor your blood pressure both at home and work, several times a day.

Nowadays, blood pressure-measuring device is not a huge investment. Any electronic store can offer a selection of affordable BP measuring devices.

Of course the ideal situation is when you don’t have to worry about blood pressure at all.

That’s why I created a very simple approach to drop blood pressure with 3 easy exercises – starting today. Try it out for yourself here…