Any science regarding variation in daily Blood Pressure?


(Mike Glasbrener) #1

As part of my keto journey I purchased a good Omron BP cuff that shares the data via blue tooth with my phone. My BP was high and I wanted to monitor progress with keto and exercise. I like things that require very little effort for long term tracking.

Anyhow, My BP a few minutes after rising in the morning is higher than about ten minutes later. 15-20 minutes after a threshold cardio spin (fairly intense) My systolic blood pressure is 20-30 points lower and my diastolic is ~5-10 points lower. I haven’t done extensive testing to better understand this. weight I get… First thing in the morning and it’s consistent. However, there’s a fair bit of noise in BP readings, some of which seems correlated to prior CV status, resting, spinning etc…

Is there any studies about this? I’ve googled and haven’t seen much. Secondly, I wonder if there’s anything wrt CV health in BP numbers after cardio. My BP numbers post spin have dropped more than my baseline. I’m wondering if between cardio and keto my CV system is getting more plastic thus expanding under the cardio load thus post spin requires less BP because the “pipes” are more open.


(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #2

Is it an arm or a wrist cuff?

(I believe that the arm cuff type is considered more accurate).

BTW, when I used to go to an acupuncturist, I noticed that he had a BP measuring device (it was analogue, with a dial), so I asked him if he wouldn’t mind measuring my BP. He was happy to oblige.
But the interesting thing was that he measured it with me lying on his couch, which was much more relaxing and natural-feeling, I thought. Whenever I’ve had BP measured by a GP, it has always been sitting up in a chair. (& that’s what the instructions on my home BP (digital) monitors say too).


(Mike Glasbrener) #3

Yup. I read about accuracy. I purchased an Omron with the arm cuff because it is considered the most accurate home monitoring BP system. The directions say measure more than once. I’m a tad OCD about things to help accuracy. I always measure sitting in the same position. I mentally relax while it’s taking the reading. I always measure twice> If the readings are similar I consider it valid. If they are different, the second is consistently lower, then I measure a third time. To date the second and third readings always agree pretty well. My readings are fairly consistent with a healthy underlying trend depending on the prior CV conditions. So that leads me to believe the measurement trends are correct even if there is some minor absolute error or measurement noise.

My comment really is:

  1. What’s the best way/time/whatever to get a consistent reading
  2. If the fact that BP is lower after cardio is some way to measure cadio health. Athletes measure recovery heart rate. Which is a measurement of time for your heart rate to decrease after exercise. Bad takes long. Good is faster.