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Paul Munter, who co-wrote an editorial on the study, said this was an important study because it synthesizes the most contemporary data and shows the importance of out-of-office blood pressure monitoring.
Once people start blood pressure lowering medications, theyre going to be on it for the rest of their lives, and so its still useful to have the extra information on someones blood pressure before asking them to take medication for the rest of their life, said Munter, an associate dean for research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.
Cohen and others are also hoping the research will encourage insurers to cover ambulatory blood pressure monitors, in which patients wear a belt around their body, attached to a cuff on their upper arm, and which take blood pressure readings periodically. Right now, most doctors rely on home blood pressure monitoring, in which doctors entrust patients to take their own readings. That can be flawed when patients take their own blood pressure readings, they often forget or remove measurements they dont like from the datasets, making the data less reliable.
But ambulatory monitors are expensive, and few insurers cover them.
Theres no such thing right now as a smartwatch, that can actually check a blood pressure without having a cuff, like an actual blood pressure cuff on it, Cohen said. And so its just very important to be a savvy consumer about these things.
What Is White Coat Syndrome Aka White Coat Hypertension
The nurse tightens the blood pressure cuff around your arm and slaps the velcro into place. She pumps air into the cuff and it squeezes around your arm, slowly suffocating it. You silently question why they havent invented a better contraption to measure blood pressure. Soon the discomfort passesuntil the nurse tells you the reading. Your blood pressure is reading at 140/90, clinically considered high systolic blood pressure.
If your reading registers high at the doctorâs officebut blood pressure monitoring in any other setting it is normalyou may be suffering from white coat syndrome, sometimes referred to as white coat hypertension or blood pressure phobia. So, what is white coat syndrome? It is an elevated blood pressure reading without the diagnosis of hypertension. The ICD 10 code for this condition is R03.0. It is also closely related to iatrophobia, the fear of doctors.
Final Thoughts On White Coat Syndrome
What should you take away from this guide to white coat syndrome?
White coat syndrome is a condition in which your blood pressure is high at the doctors office, often due to stress or anxiety but your blood pressure reading is normal in other settings.
That being said, a condition like masked hypertension is about 16 times more common than white coat syndrome, according to research from 2016.
This article also showed you how to get rid of white coat syndrome with a few natural tips on how to prevent high blood pressure. This can be as simple as practicing deep breathing exercises and meditation, working out, or doing yoga before your doctors appointment.
Taking cognitive behavioral therapy, adopting a blood pressure diet, and using automatic electronic measuring devices could also help you avoid white coat syndrome.
Follow these tips during your next check-up or physical at the doctors office. When you do, white coat hypertension will likely not be a problem.
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Q: My Blood Pressure Is Normal At Home But Spikes When Im At The Doctors Office Is This Normal
A: People often ask whether so-called white coat syndrome is anything to be worried about. This is a phenomenon where people have a higher-than-normal blood pressure reading when they are at their healthcare providers office, while their blood pressure is normal outside of a healthcare setting.
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While this pattern was once thought to be relatively benign, it actually is not. Most people whose blood pressure rises in the presence of a healthcare provider experience higher blood pressure under other forms of stress, too. Studies have found that people with this condition have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than people whose blood pressure is normal when they visit their provider.
These patients need to be followed more closely and ensure that out-of-office blood pressure monitoring is performed on a semi-regular basis. Out-of-office monitoring will ensure that home blood pressures remain low and patients do not transition to elevated blood pressures at home and in the healthcare setting.
Do Meditation And Breathing Exercise
Meditation will help you calm down before going into the doctors office. As a result, your blood pressure will remain normal.
Counting backward might relax your mind. You can also try breathing from the nose and exhaling from the mouth then inhale from the mouth and exhale through the nose.
To shift your focus from your fear, you can also close your eyes and count the things you can hear.
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What Is White Coat Hypertension And What Can I Do About It
You may have heard the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but for some, a visit to the doctor even for routine visits is a cause for stress and anxiety.
If that describes you, you may have noticed that your blood pressure is high during medical appointments, even though its usually within normal ranges at home. Theres a term for this: Whitecoat Hypertension .
And as it turns out, about 20% of adults suffer from WCH, also referred to as White Coat Syndrome or the White Coat Effect.
Do You Have White Coat Hypertension
The White Coat phenomenon may incline people to believe that they dont really have high blood pressure when they get a high reading from their doctor. They might conclude that their reading is only high because they were nervous when the doctor took it. As a result, they might not follow through on any advice that they are given regarding changing their lifestyle in order to bring the blood pressure down.
This could, obviously, be a grave error that would only worsen the persons condition. The only way to really know if you have white coat hypertension is to take readings at home and compare them with those you receive from the doctor.
It is a very good idea to take regular readings of your blood pressure at home. Keep a record of your readings that you can take it with you to the doctor. Then he can compare them to the readings that he takes.
Another alternative is to undergo 24-hour blood pressure monitoring. Your doctor will give you a discreet digital blood pressure monitor which you wear. This will take readings at regular intervals over a 24-hour period. The monitor will automatically store your readings and your doctor will be able to access them. From these readings he will then be able to work out your average blood pressure reading.
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White Coat Hypertension Presents An Elusive Challenge
Although white coat hypertension is chalked up to general anxiety, it may be the medical setting, and specifically the physician, that acts as the trigger.
A 34-year-old man consistently had in-office blood pressure values of 140 to 150/94 mm Hg. However, he was thin, jogged, and was cautious about his salt intake. He also had a normal electrocardiogram, normal glucose and kidney function values, and home blood pressure readings of 125 to 130/80 to 84 mm Hg. He did not take antihypertensive medication.
This patient demonstrates a typical example of white coat hypertension, which may occur in one in five patients with elevated untreated office pressures, explained Raymond Townsend, MD, director of the hypertension program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Although white coat hypertension often is chalked up to general anxiety, it may be the medical setting, and the presence of the physician in particular, that serves as the specific trigger, said William Gerin, PhD, a professor in the department of biobehavioral health at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa.
In a study by Dr. Gerin and his colleagues, reported in Blood Pressure Monitoring in 2001, a physician, nurse and automated device measured blood pressures in hypertensive patients.
Measuring Your Blood Pressure
Your GP, nurse, or other professional measuring your blood pressure, will ask you to sit comfortably and rest one arm on the table. They will then place a fabric cuff around your upper arm wear a T-shirt or loose clothes so that you can roll up your sleeves easily.
The inflatable cuff is attached to a small machine via a plastic tube. Your GP will inflate the cuff using a small hand-held pump, and as the cuff deflates the machine will read your blood pressure and display the numbers on a screen. This only takes a minute or two.
Sometimes your doctor might use a hand-held gauge, which looks a lot like a clock face, and a stethoscope to measure your blood pressure, rather than a machine. This is called an aneroid sphygmomanometer a sphygmomanometer is a device used to measure your blood pressure. Your GP might check your pulse before measuring your blood pressure, because an irregular pulse can mean the automatic monitors dont give an accurate reading. In which case, they will use a stethoscope instead.
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Symptoms And Signs Of White
There are usually no symptoms and signs of white-coat hypertension since its a temporary condition. Some people will have some signs of anxiety-like
- Palpitations
- Sweating
- Agitation
Having these symptoms does not necessarily mean higher blood pressure, but it may affect some people.
For most patients, the fear of being diagnosed with hypertension causes this anxiety.
Other Causes For Hypertension
A doctor in a white coat isnt the only cause for occasional hypertension. Some people experience moments of increased blood pressure because of other stressors, like work, an emergency, or not taking your blood pressure medicine for several days.
Eating food thats high in sodium or consuming a lot of caffeine might also temporarily increase your blood pressure.
While your blood pressure might return to normal once the trigger is removed, the increase in blood pressure can still be cause for concern. The temporary increase in blood pressure, whether its from a doctor or another cause, can cause strain and damage to your heart. If this temporary increase in blood pressure occurs for a long period of time, the damage can become more severe.
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How To Get Rid Of White Coat Syndrome: Causes And Risk Factors
Disclaimer: Results are not guaranteed*** and may vary from person to person***.
Some people may have normal blood pressure readings while at home however, they discover they have high blood pressure at the doctors office. This is what is known as white coat syndrome, or white coat hypertension. This article will explain how to get rid of white coat syndrome with natural treatment and prevention methods.
A healthy blood pressure is a systolic reading of around 120 mmHg and a diastolic reading of 80 mmHg. High blood pressure is anything above that number.
White coat syndrome has been defined as high blood pressure in the doctors office only. The syndrome gets its name from the traditional white coats doctors and medical staff may wear while in a hospital or clinical setting.
Research shows that the prevalence of white coat syndrome may be as high as 20% to 45% of those diagnosed with high blood pressure.
Well take a closer look at white coat syndrome, including its causes, risk factors, and how it compares to normal hypertension.
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Specific Aspects In Pediatrics
Discussion about white coat hypertension in children has been going on since 1990 . Similarly to adults, it is defined as elevated blood pressure in clinic with normal levels at home measured during the day with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring .
White coat hypertension in children has also been considered as hypertension documented in clinic and concomitantly when both levels of systolic and diastolic pressures on daily ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were lower than the 95th percentile for height and sex or less than 135/85 mmHg for children older than 15 years .
Diagnosis of white coat hypertension can be made only after defining normal levels of blood pressure in the clinic. Arterial hypertension in children is defined as blood pressure equal or higher than the 95th percentile for age, sex and height recorded at 3 different measurements several weeks or months apart .
The most common mistake in ambulatory blood pressure results interpretation is the use of percentile graphs specified for single measurement or even values for adults .
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White Coat Hypertension: What Does It Mean
The minute I step into a doctors office I can feel my heart begin to race, and not surprisingly, my blood pressure is high there. If this is white-coat hypertension, can it affect my health?
Andrew Weil, M.D. | February 6, 2017
White-coat hypertension is a well-recognized phenomenon blood pressure is often higher when its measured in a doctors office. It is a consequence of increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which constricts arteries as part of the flight-or-fight response to situations that cause anxiety, such as a medical visit. If your blood pressure is elevated in a doctors office, you want to know if its also high elsewhere. Since hypertension generally doesnt cause any symptoms, theres no way to confirm that you have it unless you monitor your blood pressure yourself, several times a day, over a few weeks or longer.
I suggest you buy a digital blood pressure cuff for this purpose. Use it to check your pressure at least twice a day at random times and keep a log of the readings.
However, in the 92 participants age 60 or older considered at high risk, there were 18 more new cardiovascular events among those with white-coat hypertension than among those of the same age and risk profile with normal blood pressure and no white-coat hypertension.
Andrew Weil, M.D.
Stanley S. Franklin et al, The Cardiovascular Risk of White Coat Hypertension. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, November 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.08.035
What Causes White Coat Syndrome
It is common for patients to experience some anxiety during a doctors visit, which can spike your blood pressure. Many can relate to that nervous feeling, where we judge ourselves for not doing enough to be healthy.
At the same time, it is quite normal to be anxious while anticipating the prospect of getting poked with needles, and probed or hooked up to test equipment.
It is no wonder why you may ask in such a situation, Do I have white coat hypertension?
Although it is true that you may have the condition, this leads some to believe that white coat hypertension isnt really a problem, and that your blood pressure will normalize once you leave the doctors office.
But, some doctors believe that white coat syndrome is a risk factor for developing long-term high blood pressure or a serious heart problem like heart disease.This is why you may also experience what is known as a high white coat syndrome heart rate. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2015 found that those with white coat syndrome had an increased risk of heart failure, stroke, heart attack, and other cardiovascular conditions.
Research also shows a possible link between sleep apnea and white coat syndrome. People with both problems had more difficulty falling asleep and longer periods of waking up in the middle of the night.
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Should High Blood Pressure Be Treated
First, you need more information to determine if its really white coat hypertension, or actual hypertension. Anytime a patient has high blood pressure, it is important to keep an eye, says, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, the assistant director of the Online Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Maryville University in Missouri. Those with family history of hypertension or cardiovascular disease should be especially diligent.
Home blood pressure monitoring is a good follow-up plan. Your healthcare provider can provide guidance to you to make sure youre measuring your blood pressure correctly on your own when using a home blood pressure monitor. Your physician might also suggest that you wear an ambulatory blood pressure monitor. An ambulatory blood pressure monitor tracks blood pressure readings over the course of 24 hours. These out-of-office readings provide a better sense of what your blood pressure is really doing.
What Is The Icd 10 For Hypertension
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Similarly one may ask, what is the ICD 10 code for hypertension?
That code is I10, Essential hypertension. As in ICD-9, this code includes âhigh blood pressureâ but does not include elevated blood pressure without a diagnosis of hypertension .
Beside above, what is the ICD 10 code for white coat hypertension? R03.0
Consequently, what is the main term for essential hypertension?
Essential hypertension is high blood pressure that doesn’t have a known secondary cause. It’s also referred to as primary hypertension. Blood pressure is the force of blood against your artery walls as your heart pumps blood through your body. The other kind of hypertension is secondary hypertension.
Is i10 a valid ICD 10 code?
I10 is a valid billable ICD–10 diagnosis code for Essential hypertension. It is found in the 2020 version of the ICD–10 Clinical Modification and can be used in all HIPAA-covered transactions from Oct 01, 2019 – Sep 30, 2020.
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