Fun With Blood Pressure

[Brown]

I have lately found a way to enjoy a tedious task. Every other week, I go to my local clinic and have my blood pressure checked. I fill out a little form, wait quietly for a few minutes (it is standard procedure for each patient to relax for at least five minutes before the reading), then I am invited into the nurses' station for the blood pressure check. The nurses use a machine (as opposed to a manually inflated cuff and stethoscope) to make the measurements.

I'm a "regular," so I know some of the nurses by name, but it seems as though there is someone new there on almost every visit. And when a new nurse takes my blood pressure, she's in for a treat.

Today a new nurse took my blood pressure. I asked that two measurements be taken, one on my right arm and one on my left, and that the measurements be taken one right after the other.

The first measurement was in the borderline-high range.

The second was completely normal, 28 points lower on systolic, 16 points lower on diastolic. The two readings were taken about two minutes apart.

The nurse was thunderstruck. She had never seen a disparity like this before.

Her reaction was the same as that of all the other nurses. At least half a dozen nurses have witnessed this and all of them have found it to be amazing. They could hardly believe it.

I've found that it does not matter which arm is measured first. The first reading is usually a little high, and the second is quite a bit lower. Nurses sometimes ask me to agree to a third reading (on the "high arm"), which I do, and it too is lower.

Despite this unusual pheneomenon, there is probably nothing paranormal going on. It is possible that my blood pressure elevates easily: the short walk into the nurses' station, the preliminary chit-chat about health and the weather... these things might raise my blood pressure a bit. But within a matter of seconds, the blood pressure settles down again.

 

[Mouthfire]

I have lately found a way to enjoy a tedious task. Every other week, I go to my local clinic and have my blood pressure checked. I fill out a little form, wait quietly for a few minutes (it is standard procedure for each patient to relax for at least five minutes before the reading), then I am invited into the nurses' station for the blood pressure check. The nurses use a machine (as opposed to a manually inflated cuff and stethoscope) to make the measurements.

I'm a "regular," so I know some of the nurses by name, but it seems as though there is someone new there on almost every visit. And when a new nurse takes my blood pressure, she's in for a treat.

Today a new nurse took my blood pressure. I asked that two measurements be taken, one on my right arm and one on my left, and that the measurements be taken one right after the other.

The first measurement was in the borderline-high range.

The second was completely normal, 28 points lower on systolic, 16 points lower on diastolic. The two readings were taken about two minutes apart.

The nurse was thunderstruck. She had never seen a disparity like this before.

Her reaction was the same as that of all the other nurses. At least half a dozen nurses have witnessed this and all of them have found it to be amazing. They could hardly believe it.

I've found that it does not matter which arm is measured first. The first reading is usually a little high, and the second is quite a bit lower. Nurses sometimes ask me to agree to a third reading (on the "high arm"), which I do, and it too is lower.

Despite this unusual pheneomenon, there is probably nothing paranormal going on. It is possible that my blood pressure elevates easily: the short walk into the nurses' station, the preliminary chit-chat about health and the weather... these things might raise my blood pressure a bit. But within a matter of seconds, the blood pressure settles down again.

The other thing that this might be is "coarctation of the aorta". That's when there is a stricture (or narrowing) somewhere in the aorta. In your case, it would probably be somewhere in the arch of the aorta.

But if you really had it, your right arm would be consistently higher than your left arm, so I doubt you actually have it.

 

[Mr. Skinny]

The old "tennis ball under the armpit" trick, Brown?

Randi taught that to you when you had dinner together two years ago, didn't he?

 

[Loon]

Could also be that the device is not as accurate as they would like to think.

 

[Mouthfire]

Could be that too...

 

[Brown]

The old "tennis ball under the armpit" trick, Brown?

Randi taught that to you when you had dinner together two years ago, didn't he?

I thought that the tennis ball was used to perform the trick that fooled Sixty Minutes's Mike Wallace.

Actually, there is a way to make your blood pressure go up rapidly without increasing activity. If you know where they are, you can stimulate baroreceptors (pressure-sensitive receptors in your body) that will cause your blood pressure to change. It's difficult to do this without it being noticed, and the nurses would certainly be aware if this were being done intentionally or unintentionally.

The only conversation I had with Mr. Randi about my blood pressure was that I said that it is no longer true that all pulse measurements are divisible by four (see http://www.randi.org/jr/112902.html ). The blood pressure instrument, in addition to giving systolic and diastolic readings, also measures my pulse rate, and only about one in four of its pulse readings is divisible by four. I showed Mr. Randi the blood pressure record I carry in my wallet to confirm that pulse rates taken by machines do not have to be divisible by four.

As for whether the device is consistent, I've found it is generally more consistent than the "cuff and stethoscope" technique.

 

[Psi Baba]

I wonder what the result would be if one of the new nurses started talking to you about a new homeopathic blood pressure medication.

 

[CBL4]

I have similar results sometime but it is because I do not like having my blood pressure taken. The clamping of the cuff on my arm causes my to have a mini-panic attack and my blood pressure skyrockets. It is very hard for me to avoid this.

CBL