Does Low Barometric Pressure Lower Blood Pressure?
I’m writing this post, as the barometric pressure has been low for a few days and my blood pressure has been as follows.
- Friday – 109/81/80
- Saturday – 120/47/78
- Sunday – 123/84/77
- Monday – 114/54/81
- Tuesday – 118/80/73
- Wednesday – 105/75/84
- Thursday – 108/81/74
- Friday – 107/56/70
The pressure had been going up and down all week, with two storms and quite a bit of rain.
So I asked Google AI the question in the title of this post and received this answer.
Yes, low barometric pressure can sometimes lower blood pressure, particularly systolic blood pressure, though the relationship can be complex and varies by individual and season. Studies have shown an inverse relationship, meaning as barometric pressure drops, blood pressure can also decrease. However, other factors can also influence this, and some research suggests a more complex “U-shaped” relationship where both very low and very high pressures may be associated with changes in blood pressure.
That’s fairly conclusive.
This paper on the National Library of Medicine, which was entitled Evaluation Of The Impact Of Atmospheric Pressure In Different Seasons On Blood Pressure In Patients With Arterial Hypertension, is referenced.
£20 Electronic Ear-Clips Train The Body To Decrease Blood Pressure
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These two paragraphs outline how the device is used.
A £20 device that delivers “tingling” electric pulses to the ears and can be worn at home could be almost twice as effective as drugs at reducing blood pressure, a neuroscientist has said.
Early trials suggest that wearing the small electrodes clipped to the ears for half an hour per day over two weeks while relaxing, watching TV or eating can reduce blood pressure by up to 15mm of mercury (mm Hg), compared with 8mm Hg to 10mm Hg for drugs such as Ace inhibitors or beta-blockers.
It appears the device has been developed at University College London.
Would I Use Electronic Ear-Clips To Control My Blood Pressure?
Soon after my wife died in 2007, my cholesterol levels rose.
The Ipswich Town Physiotherapist, who was a drinking partner before matches at Portman Road, recommended that I see his dietician.
She identified the following.
- My diet had changed since my my wife’s death, as I was choosing the food and doing the cooking.
- She suspected, that I wasn’t eating enough soluble fibre.
- I was eating enough fruit and vegetables.
Her solution was two-fold.
- Swap butter and other spreads for Benecol.
- Make sure, I eat, at least one small tin of baked beans every week.
Obviously, as I had been found to be coeliac in 1997, I should stay gluten-free.
I’ve seen other dieticians since and none have criticised, what she said.
No doctor has also ever said, that there is something wrong with my cholesterol.
After my stroke in 2010, I was put on Warfarin to thin my blood.
The only addition to my cocktail of drugs, was that after an unexplained collapse, I was put on blood pressure drugs.
So to return to the question I asked at the top of this section.
I may take six or seven drugs and vitamin tablets every day, but swapping one or two for half-an-hour with an electronic device wouldn’t be too much trouble.
That is, if I could tolerate the device, as I’m not keen on headphones.
But it could be an interesting alternative to taking pharmaceutical drugs.
The Cure For White Coat Hypertension
At one of my previous GP practices the two excellent nurses had banned my GP from taking blood pressure as she always raised the patient’s blood pressure, by the way she took the pressure.
This page on a blog at the London Cadiovascular Clinic is entitled White Coat Hypertension, gives this definition.
White coat syndrome, also known as white coat hypertension is a phenomenon in which your blood pressure is artificially raised due to the stress of being in a clinic, hospital, or even just taking your own blood pressure. This usually happens due to the stress and anxiety associated with having medical investigations done. Your reading will be higher than it would be if you measured it at home.
A week ago, I had a message from my GP practice to come in and measure my blood pressure in their machine in the waiting room.
So I went in and took my blood pressure about an hour ago.
I just put my hand in the hole at the front, shook hands with the machine, pressed the green button on top and it inflated a glove around my hand and lower arm to take the pressure.
Ears Are A Black Body
When I worked for ICI in Runcorn in 1968, one of my colleagues; John Baxendale developed or acquired one of the first remote infra-red thermometers.
ICI needed one for taking the temperature of hot vessels , pipes and reactors on chemical plants and in laboratories. John’s thermometer solved the problem, by measuring the black body radiation of the object.
John found that to calibrate his instrument he could point it at a colleague’s ear. As the ears emit black body radiation, the device should have read 36.9°C, as it generally did.
These so-called tympanic thermometers are now in regular use and cost about twenty pounds.
John is one of those people that has stuck in my mind from all those years in the past. He was a surfer and probably the only one, I’ve ever met in my life. I remember some weekends, he used to take his Morris Minor Traveller all the way to the North of Scotland to go surfing. Visiting that area has been on my bucket list for years. The closest I got, was to fly in my Cessna 340A to the Orkneys.
Fighting My Way Through The Covids
I owe it to the memory of my great-great-great-grandfather; Robert, who arrived in this country around 1800, from Konigsberg in East Prussia, that I fight my way through the covids.
He had to leave Konigsberg because he was eighteen, male and Jewish! Unless, you were a member of a privileged family, you had to leave. As he had just finished his apprenticeship to be a tailor, he at least had a trade and could carry the tools he needed in a small case.
He became a tailor in Bexley and lived to a good age. I am also sure, that he contributed coeliac disease to the family’s gene pool.
In this post, I will talk about various topics, as I fight my way through to normality.
On the mother’s side of the family, the male line in Huguenot, who probably arrived about 1750.
Did I Fall Because Of A Blood Pressure Problem?
I had a fall in my bedroom, a couple of months ago, as I wrote about in An Accident In My Bedroom.
My GP thinks I might have a blood pressure problem, so I’m now taking my blood pressure sitting down and then standing up for five minutes before taking it again.
These are my readings.
- September 1st – 132/74/182 – 123/102/79
- September 2nd – 145/75/85 – 138/51/82
- September 3rd – 102/77/69 – 123/64/87
- September 3rd – 143/74/75 – 150/64/74
- September 4th – 140/54/64 – 139/64/73
- September 4th – 124/62/92 – 120/51/79
- September 5th – 106/67/51 – 138/52/64
- September 5th – 127/78/67 – 136/62/73
- September 6th – 10:45 – 138/104/76 – 116/53/55
- September 6th – 16:00 – 138/63/54 – 137/88/74
- September 6th – 22:00 – 136/71/59 – 131/77/61
- September 7th – 09:30 – 147/98/76 – 152/82/75
- September 7th – 22:30 – 164/80/74 – 145/61/77
- September 8th – 09:15 – 121/77/66 – 119/71/66
- September 8th – 11:45 – 109/47/70 – 119/48/78
- September 9th – 08:45 – 114/70/73 – 137/51/73 – 129/64/92
- December 9th – 11:00 – 107/146/73 – 143/43/83 – 116/49/87
- September 9th – 20:00 – 131/54/84 – 140/53/78
- September 9th – 21:30 – 131/78/80 – 156/64/81
- September 10th – 10:00 – 148/77/74 – 141/78/63
- September 10th – 13:00 – 106/61/82 – 122/60/81
- September 11th – 09:15 – 137/44/71 – 135/80/66
- September 11th – 10:00 – 126/72/72 – 116/58/70
- September 12th – 10:30 – 119/69/78 – 117/66/70
- September 12th – 20:00 – 111/68/75 – 140/78/69
- September 13th – 10:45 – 112/73/61 – 109/57/69
- September 13th – 15:30 – 106/59/62 – 110/43/65
- September 14th – 09:30 – 116/63/91 – 109/61/85
- September 14th – 17:15 – 117/59/97 – 126/57/79
- September 15th – 08:30 – 134/78/54 – 107/75/76
- September 16th – 06:00 – 113/79/77 – 130/66/80
- September 17th – 09:00 – 117/69/91 – 113/50/63
- September 17th – 22:00 – 118/54/85 – 146/76/86
- September 18th – 09:00 – 147/81/69 – 139/71/67
- September 18th – 21:00 – 124/109/69 – 113/60/83
- September 19th – 10:00 – 143/57/66 – 152/83/75
- September 19th – 19:00 – 118/57/55 – 121/74/81
- September 20th – 09:50 – 143/69/52 – 135/67/66
- September 21st – 09:30 – 158/72/73 – 150/73/66
- September 22nd – 09:15 – 147/49/77 – 149/59/73
- September 22nd – 20:22 – 108/65/82 – 141/66/73
- September 23rd – 08:10 – 140/63/70 – 109/73/60
- September 23rd – 15:00 – 97/65/83 – 109/61/68
- September 24th – 09:00 – 134/52/74 – 143/62/62
- September 25th – 09:00 – 149/70/69 – 130/92/77
- September 25th – 13:00 – 108/75/78 – 135/68/73
- September 26th – 17:30 – 120/62/77 – 124/63/68
- September 27th – 10:00 – 139/64/74 – 132/70/74
- September 28th – 08:00 – 140/73/77 – 140/73/60
Note.
- The first reading is sitting down and the second is after standing up for five minutes.
- My blood pressure meter isn’t the best.
- I didn’t note the times, when I started.
- The third reading is taken about four minutes later.
I don’t know anything about understanding these readings.
Managing My INR
My GP and I have agreed that I should be on 3.5 mg. of Warfarin a day to control my INR.
- So I alternate between 3 and 4 mg.
- I also test my INR every two days.
These are my figures for the last few days, with my Warfarin dose.
- September 1st – 4 mg – N/R
- September 2nd – 3 mg – 2.5
- September 3rd – 4 mg – N/R
- September 4th – 3 mg – 2.7
- September 5th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 6th – 3 mg – 2.8
- September 7th – 3 mg – N/R
- September 8th – 4 mg – 2.4
- September 9th – 3 mg – N/R
- September 10th – 4 mg – 2.3
- September 11th – 3 mg – 2.7
- September 12th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 13th – 3 mg – 2.5
- September 14th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 15th – 4 mg – 2.2
- September 16th – 3 mg – N/R
- September 17th – 5 mg – 2.2
- September 18th – 3 mg – 2.8
- September 19th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 20th – 4 mg. – 2.5
- September 21st – 3 mg – N/R
- September 22nd – 4 mg – 2.2
- September 23rd – 3 mg – 2.3
- September 24th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 25th – 3 mg – 2.4
- September 26th – 4 mg – N/R
- September 27th – 4 mg – 2.1
- September 28th – 3 mg – 2.4
Note.
- If the INR is 2.5 or greater, I take 3 mg that day and 4, the next.
- If it’s less than 2.5, I take 4 mg that day and 3 the next,
- I also check the 30 day average of my Warfarin dose and currently it is 3.6.
One advantage about Warfarin, is the degree of control, you have of your INR.
A couple of years ago, I needed to have a small operation on my mouth.
The surgeon wanted to use an anaesthetist to boost the bill.
- So I said, what INR would be safe and he said 2.1!
- In the end I reduced it, by not taking four mg of the drug.
- After the successful operation, I brought it back up to 2.5, by taking an extra four mg.
- I suspect it cost me a tenner for the extra strips!
Good value and I avoided the lottery of anaesthesia.
I’m Drinking A Lot
In a four-hour period a few days ago, I drank two litres. Is that excessive?
It did include half a unit of alcohol, but was mainly mugs of tea.
And I still felt the need to drink more.
General Health
Like most coeliacs, I know on a gluten-free diet, I’m doing fairly well in the pandemic.
Not one of us has had a severe dose of the covids. But then I’ve never had flu since I went gluten-free and I’ve only had a flu jab since 2005.
Could this be related to the fact, that the gluten-free diet gives us a strong immune system and seems to protect us from cancer, according to research by Joe West at Nottingham University?
The Anonymous Widower 