Any advice grateful .....

Hi there - if the blood tests are the same as I have had - which includes a HbA1c test, then that looks at what you have been doing over the past three months - so any changes now would have very little time to take effect! I would think that a glass of wine every now and then would be ok - but home glass sizes are larger than a standard unit, so yo may hve to cut down - may be have it as a spritzer with soda water or diet lemonade. Stress is not a good thing, but sometimes cant be avoided - there is a limit to what you can do with your lifestyle - I would work on the fact that this is a long term problem and look at small steps to change small things, that over the months would add up to bigger changes - maybe look at changing one bad habit every fortnight, and take it from there - as long as over each 3 monthly tests there is a change in your levels for the better, then that is a good thing.

Well that is my philosophy about it - I was diagnosed a month ago, and find it difficult to get out of some bad habits - slowly but steady!!

Good luck!!

Good luck, Susan,

Not only will a couple of glasses of wine in the evening do you no harm, it'll do you a lot of good.

I have a couple of glasses EVERY evening, and it should be available on prescription if you ask me.

Cheers,

fergus

Maybe you suffer from 'white coat' syndrome,Susan! A lot of people find that the mere thought of going to the doctors makes their BP go up! My husbands doctor made him sit and deep breathe for a minute before he took his BP a second time and the result was quite marked,his BP was a lot lower than the first time he took it.

I have to take medication to control high blood pressure, and my diabetic nurse recommended getting my own monitor so I could test at home for a more accurate picture of results. Lloyds pharmacy have a good automatic model available for £9.99.

Here's the link if you're interested.

Thirsty, read the instructions on the monitor very carefully.Those monitors are not that accurate and if you move or have your arm in the wrong position they can give a very high reading!

That's pretty much what the nurse told me, Sue. To be fair, my home readings are fairly consistent with the results I get at the clinic. Also, I was originally prescribed too high a dose of lisinopril and my BP dropped to levels where I was fainting. The meter readings were about right when that happened, so make of that what you will!

hya,
i have a lloyds blood pressure monitor, so far it has worked for me ,i do recommend when using these not to believe everything they say,if in doubt see your gp,like anything else,what works for one of us isnt forced to work for another :wink:
amanda

That's good,thirsty,you're obviously using it correctly.I've seen people waving their arm about ,scratching their noses etc and then wondering why their BP is over 200 !! :lol:

Heh, I can well imagine that happening, Sue. In a similar vein, my diabetic nurse (who's an absolute love), sometimes despairs over the way some people misuse their blood glucose meters and then panic over the results. They forget to calibrate the device, refuse to wash their hands before testing, and don't bother to change the chip when they get a new tube of strips.

It can't be an easy job...

That's another thing I like about the onetouch ultra,no fiddly chip.You just recalibrate digitally to what ever number is on the test strip tube.