This video will help you to relax when
having your blood pressure taken at the doctor's and it's especially helpful if
you have white coat syndrome, if you have a fear of going to the doctors or if you
have a social anxiety. Hello my name is Clare and welcome to Generation Calm
where you can learn to reduce your stress and anxiety naturally in your own
time so that your mind and body feel great. So we're going to be talking
briefly about what is white coat syndrome but keep watching until the end
because I'm going to give you three tips that you can use to relax when you next
have your blood pressure taken at the doctor's.
So I recently wrote a blog post
about white coat syndrome and it's when your blood pressure is
uncharacteristically high when you go to a clinical setting to go and get your
blood pressure checked even when in a normal setting your blood pressure is
absolutely normal and that's because the stress and anxiety that you feel when
going to the doctor's it makes sure your blood pressure spike, it also makes
other things you know like your heart rate spike too but when it comes to
blood pressure the numbers are everything. High blood pressure has no
symptoms so the doctor can only go by what numbers he's seeing and if every
time you come into the doctor's surgery you have high blood pressure they're
going to start thinking that you have high blood pressure or hypertension. So
it's named white coat hypertension or white coat syndrome because normally a
lot of doctors will wear a white coat.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that
it's the white coats that make you anxious it is the clinical setting
itself. Now some people might have high blood pressure readings at a doctor's
compared to at home for other reasons. It may be that they have a social anxiety
and that means that they get anxious about talking to the doctors or being
around other people. It might be that someone has a health anxiety and so
they're worried they're going to get bad news when they go to the clinic. It might
be something completely random like you've ridden your bike to the doctor's
and so your heart rate is up and your blood pressure's up. So if you suspect
that you have white coat syndrome and that means that your blood pressure only
gets super-high when you're in a clinical setting whereas it's normal at
home then I encourage you to talk to your doctor about having a 24-hour
monitor.
If that's not possible try and get yourself an at home blood
pressure monitor and if that's still not possible then try an in-store Public
blood pressure monitor. The only trouble with those is that maybe the cuff's gonna
be too big and if you get anxious going to the doctors you might get anxious
being inside a store public publicly having your blood pressure taken. This
gives a more accurate reading of what your blood pressure is normally and not
just what it's like when you're interacting with nursing staff. And
thirdly if you do have to rely on a clinic to have your blood pressure taken
then I recommend that you use the guidelines that are put out there by the
American Heart Association. So they recommend that you make sure you've hadnno caffeine and you haven't smoked for at least 30 minutes prior to your
appointment make sure to keep your cuffed arm rested on a table and keep it
about heart level.
Keep your feet flat and planted on the ground keep your back
straight and make sure that you don't talk to the physician. Now I encourage
you to ask them to retake it in a minutes time and even if possible maybe
towards the end of the appointment so that you get a comparison reading of
before and after. And there are other things you can do to help yourself when
you are having a blood pressure taken at the doctors and one of those is taking a
book with you or listening to some music, making sure you get there early so that
you're not feeling rushed and you have time for your for your blood pressure to
come down naturally. And that also gives you the opportunity to try out some
relaxation techniques and I've got three that you should try for your
next visit to the doctor's. The first one is the mindfulness technique called the
5 4 3 2 1. When you look for five things in
environment that you can look at.
And then notice 4 things that you can
hear. Three things that you can feel 2 things that you can smell and one thing
that you can taste. Now this is designed to keep you focused on the present
moment what's going on around you what's going on inside of you and to take you
away from those intrusive thoughts that can happen when you go to the clinical
settings. So the second technique that you can try while in a doctor's surgery
to bring down your blood pressure is a breathing technique. You breathe in for 4
counts, you hold it for one and then breathe out for six counts. If you can't
remember the numbers don't worry about it always breathe out for longer then
you breathe in. This really helps you to put yourself back in control and create
that calm for yourself and it's amazing how quickly a breathing technique can
bring down your blood pressure. And finally repeat a positive word or phrase
– some people call that a mantra. Something like 'I am at peace' or 'I am safe', 'I am
healthy strong and full of vitality'.
Repeat this to yourself silently in your
head as your blood pressure is being taken. And join me next week as I upload
5 5-minute meditations for 5 days next week and they're all designed to help
reduce your blood blood pressure and put you in control of starting your stress
management program. Thanks for watching..
