Hi! Is anyone starting Master of Science Curriculum & Instruction program July 1st? Would love to start a group or something if so!😊 I’m nervous… this is my 5th year of teaching, so I haven’t been a “student” in 4 years.
Background: I’m a 25 y/o female. I do high intensity interval training 4-5 days per week and hot yoga once per week. I eat relatively healthy, maybe a little high in salt. I drink socially or maybe a glass of wine with dinner here and there. I did go rogue on the drinking from like 17-21 but for the past 4 years drink pretty seldomly. My dad’s side of the family has extensive heart issues due to genetic bicuspid aortic valve running in my family, high cholesterol, high BP, and T2 diabetes. Thankfully I’ve managed to avoid diabetes as I maintain a healthy weight and I do not have a bicuspid valve, but I have had high cholesterol for as long as I can remember (like since 10 years old it’s been elevated) no matter my weight, diet or lifestyle, so I was started on 10 mg of rosuvastatin 3 years ago. My cholesterol is well within normal range now.
Sorry this is long. For the past 4 years or so I have gotten extremely elevated readings at doctor’s offices, I’m talking like 160/100. So about 3 years ago my cardiologist had me do a 24 hour BP reading & it came back as an average of like 113/74. Pretty good. Chalked those ridiculous readings up to white coat syndrome. I have continued to get those elevated readings in office since then and I’m going to be honest, I’ve pretty much become petrified of getting my blood pressure taken to the point where I call ahead for appointments with my various doctors to see if they’re going to take my BP so I can prepare myself mentally (never works). Every time I take my blood pressure now, whether at home or in office, my heart rate shoots up to like 120-140s. The more consistently I’ve taken it, my HR has come down slightly but I can’t get it down past 105. My cardiologist had me do a week of home readings & my average came back as 130/85. Not horrible but not great, so he put me on 2.5 mg of amlodipine. Ive been on it for almost a week and my systolic is coming down but not my diastolic which he is most concerned with. I know I need to give it more time so I’m not super worried about it but I’m just at a loss with how to help my heart rate come down while taking readings. I feel like that is skewing my numbers. I sit for 5 minutes with the cuff on me, feet flat on the floor, arm at heart level, no talking and I empty my bladder before. My Apple Watch says my resting heart rate is usually in the 70s but has increased since I started taking these twice daily readings. What to do?!