Your Phone Is Like a TV Remote for High Blood PressureWhen we say “Your phone is like a TV remote for high blood pressure”
we don’t mean there’s an app for that.

And we don’t mean you can point your phone at people and make their blood pressure soar either, but we do mean it does do something nearly as bad to you.

Italian researchers at Guglielmo da Saliceto hospital in Piacenza already knew that cell phone ownership comes with a few potential health warnings, but their recent study confirmed something new.

In the study, they sat the subjects in a comfortable doctor’s office, so they were nice and relaxed and took blood pressure readings from them with an automatic device. In all, they tested 49 women whose average age was 53. All of them suffered from high blood pressure and were taking blood pressure lowering medications.

Each subject had their blood pressure measured a few times, and while this was happening, one of the researchers would anonymously call their phone a few times. Every call caused a spike in the subject’s systolic blood pressure, and it stayed elevated for a while after. Diastolic blood pressure was not affected.

Some people think that the radio frequencies generated by cell phones can cause this kind of thing, but the researchers believe it has got more to do with just the noise. When a phone goes off, we feel the urgent need to answer it. It interrupts our train of thought and demands our attention, almost like a crying child.

The researchers noticed that it was the older participants who showed the biggest spikes in blood pressure, and these were the ones who usually received fewer than 30 notifications day.

Maybe this is because younger people rely on their phones so much. So, they felt more relaxed about receiving notifications than the older people in the study.

There are a couple of takeaways from this study. The first one is to put your phone on silent when you go for a blood pressure test with your doctor, as it may skew the results. The second is to think about living without your phone from time to time, switching it off, particularly if it’s something that causes you anxiety.

We’ve come to rely on phones in the last few years, but we’re only just beginning to understand the health implications of that.

We do know that giving your blood pressure a break is good for you, which is why we recommend taking a “Focused Break”. It’s a simple approach that will help you control your high blood pressure naturally, and you can read about it here…