High Blood Pressure Misdiagnosed By The Wrong Measurement

A controversial new study looking at Mayo Clinic patients has been recently published, and it looked at what challenges most people – including doctors – in understanding when and how to have one’s blood pressure measured.

This could mean that millions of people have been unnecessarily put on dangerous blood pressure medications, when in fact their blood pressure was completely healthy.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic looked at the medical histories of over 400 patients and found that having one’s blood pressure taken every time a patient sees the doctor could cause more damage than checking it once annually.

The reasons they cited included potential errors in over-diagnosis due to false positives, and that the staff was not following proper testing procedures and this thereby had the effects of “white coat syndrome.”

White coat syndrome happens when the blood pressure is temporarily elevated due to anxiety over simply having a doctor visit.

The researchers concluded that taking a patient’s blood pressure once per year (and then doing it properly) at the annual exam would eliminate the vast majority of false positives.

By extension, this would eliminate unnecessary follow-up tests or drug regiments.

Critics looking at the study results stated that the 7% error in finding actual hypertensive patients by screening only once annually was too big of an error margin and more frequent testing should be viewed as the safer route.

The battle underscores the need for frequent and properly conducted at-home screening. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that home meters, when used at the recommended 3-times-per-day interval and in the proper way, are a much more accurate gauge in understanding how a patient is faring than measuring blood pressure in the stressful environment that is the doctor’s office.

The proper way includes making sure the person being tested is seated, has been at rest for at least 5 minutes prior to the test, and that the testing arm is supported. Both sides of the controversial study agree that this is not being done in the doctor’s office, which accounts for many of the errors.

Repeated studies have also revealed that natural methods are always the best to lower blood pressure.

Now the bigger question is: What to do if your blood pressure is actually too high?

The most effective natural methods to lower blood pressure are 3 easy exercises that have been proven to lower blood pressure to a healthy level in as little as 9 minutes. Learn more about these exercises and test-drive them online right here…