Exercise And Normal, Safe Vs Abnormal, Unsafe Bp

[mkoven]

So as I've posted here before, I have had strange bp reactions to exercise. Since having had my heart declared more or less healthy, and having the green light to exercise, I've been trying to do some strengthening and aerobic.

After being seriously deconditioned from the hospital and the month before when there was fear i had heart disease, I've started slow. I started walking five minutes. I was doing 20 minutes, and today went to 25.

Often, I'll feel kind of crummy at first, as I think my bp isn't meeting my demands and may even be falling. I then feel a heaviness in my upper body, chest, and like there's just no gas, and I couldn't accelerate if I had to. My strategy has been to see if tensing my abs helps (it often does), or slowing down, or taking a brief break. Some days, I just can't make imy ans kick in, some days I can't, and I have to give up. Today started feeling like a bad days. But I paused, squeezed my abs, and started feeling even kind of good. I might have pushed it a little, because it was so nice to feel what exercise is supposed to feel like.

Well, I measured my bp when I got in, and it was up-- which is good in some senses. It means my ans finally did deliver. But my first reading was kinda scary! --148/122 hr 120. The systolic for someone who has just exercised I think is okay ( not as a resting bp) , but that diastolic looks way too high. I don't know if it was a fluke. (I think diastolic is supposed to be pretty stable during exertion). I remeasured a couple times and then got:

143/79

127/75

113/73

so it looks like the subsequent numbers were okay, and appropriate-- not too high, showing a cooling down downward trend.

but what to make of that first number? a fluke? or dangerous? I have no idea what it was during exercise...Should I be worried? Or just see what happens next time?

thanks

Michele

[Ernie]

Hi,

Well I don't know if I am exercising safe but my BP is going to 200-140 when I exercise and the doctors don't seem to think anything out of it.

[mkoven]

Interesting. Do they measure it WHILE you're exercising?

[Ernie]

Hi,

Yes, it was measured several times while I was on the treadmill and on another machine. When I strain my BP goes up and then it can crash anytime.

[MightyMouse]

Michele, I can't say for sure what is unsafe in your particular position--but my doctor wasn't worried when my bp was up in the 140's as the top number--he was more concerned when my diastolic shot up in the 100's while my systolic wasn't much over 140.

How you're moving will change pressure readings--so if you were bearing down, compressing your abdominal muscles or other major muscle groups, you could have gotten a brief high reading of the diastolic pressure-- if you're other readings weren't that high, I would tend to think that you could better trust the multiple readings showing the lower pressure as opposed to the one high reading. Might have been an error if you were still holding in your abs.

Nina

[firewatcher]

Michele, I have had numbers just like that too. My cardiologist also said it was normal. Trust the multiple readings more, you will get a fluke occasionally. Just monitor it, and keep a log so that you have evidence if something really wonky keeps coming up. Continue to take it after you stop exercising as well. That is when my BP drops, big time (89/80.) Good luck, it seems like the horse keeps getting higher every time I fall off, reconditioning stinks.

Jennifer