Heart Health
Importance of home blood pressure monitoring
Doctors, diabetes educators, physician assistants, nurses and other healthcare professionals recommend home blood pressure monitoring for various reasons, including the ability to:
• Be constantly aware of a vital indicator about your overall health
• Provide your doctor with infor-mation to better understand and manage your high blood pressure
• See how you are responding to medication
Many types of hypertension can only be detected by monitoring your blood pressure at home, including:
• White-coat Hypertension: blood pressure reading is high in doctor's office but lower at home
• Masked Hypertension: blood pressure reading is low in doctor's office but higher at home
• Morning Hypertension: a sharp increase in blood pressure in the morning
Recent research has shown a significant link of morning hypertension to stroke.
Additionally, many factors can affect your blood pressure, including physical exertion, emotional fluctuations, medications and stress, so having your blood pressure monitored at a pharmacy with an in-store device after you have been shopping or walking around might not provide you with the most accurate measurement.
Monitoring your blood pressure at home allows you to more easily get to a relaxed state and the flexibility to take your measurements at various times during the day. By keeping track of your home blood pressure readings, you can provide your healthcare professional with a log of blood pressure measurements over time, which can help them evaluate the effective.
• The effect of high blood pressure on cardiovascular risk is greater in the
morning than during other periods of the day.(1)
• Morning hypertension is linked to silent hypertensive cerebrovascular
disease and subsequent stroke risk.(2)
• Morning blood pressure rises remain untreated in 50 percent of patients
who receive treatment for hypertension.(3)
• Morning hypertension has been shown to significantly increase the risk of
stroke by as much as three times in elderly patients.(4)
(1)"Time for Focus on Morning Hypertension: Pitfall of Current Antihypertensive Medication," American Journal of Hypertension.
(2)"Clinical Implication of Morning Blood Pressure Surge in Hypertension," Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology
(3)"Morning hypertension is masked in well-controlled hypertensives: the JICHI morning hypertension research study (J-MORE) study," Poster presented at American Society of Hypertension, 2004 New York USA
(4)Kario K, Pickering TG, Umeda Y, et. al. Morning surge in blood pressure as a predictor of silent and clinical cerebrovascular disease in elderly hypertensives: a prospective study. Circulation. 2003, 107: 1401-1405
What is “Morning Hypertension” and how do I know I have it?
Morning Hypertension is defined as the weekly average for morning blood pressure reading (blood pressure measured within 1 to 2 hours after awakening in the morning) exceeding 135/85 mmHg.
There are two types of morning hypertension:
• Patients either have consistently high blood pressure through the night or
experience blood pressure increases while asleep.
• Patients experience extreme dips in blood pressure at night and extreme
surges in the morning.
In either case, it is very difficult to detect morning hypertension. By the time patients go to see a doctor, their blood pressure may have already decreased – making the condition impossible to diagnose. That is why doctors recommend monitoring blood pressure at home.
Significant Impact
There are important reasons why patients are being encouraged to differentiate between general hypertension and morning hypertension. It is common knowledge that cardiovascular events and stroke are more common in the morning and both appear to be linked to morning hypertension. Organ damage and diabetic complications also seem to correlate with morning blood pressure surges.
The hazards of high blood pressure
High blood pressure (hypertension) increases the workload of your heart and arteries in order to maintain the body's necessary blood flow. Your heart has to pump harder and your arteries have to carry blood that is under greater pressure when you have high blood pressure. Sustained high blood pressure results in your heart and arteries not working as well as they could. Serious health problems, such as stroke, congestive heart failure and heart attack, could also develop as a result of high blood pressure. The risk of having such health problems is greatly increased if, in addition to being hypertensive, you are obese and or sedentary, you smoke or if you have high cholesterol or diabetes. High blood pressure affects more than just your heart and arteries. Other body organs including the eyes, brain and kidneys can also be affected by high blood pressure. It is important to know that some over the counter medications, primarily cold and flu products that contain a decongestant can raise your blood pressure. Decongestants have also been known to interfere with the efficacy of blood pressure medications.
Always check with your doctor before taking any over-the-counter medications
