My mother has had her blood pressure measured a few times now and it’s been elevated (was 156/91 today) I want to suggest the 24 hour ambulatory measurements that I’ve seen suggested to properly assess if it’s always high
She’s sensitive in general and likely to catastrophe a situation so I’m wondering how to approach saying hey you should try and get this measurement done (if that’s even good advice) and how to properly explain the weekly activity guidelines without sounding like "if you don’t do this bad things will happen’
You often speak about reframing so I’m wondering
A) do I suggest she seeks out the 24 hour ministering
B) what are some reframing strategies to get someone to realize * this is serious I should make a lifestyle change * without anxiety about it?
As a secondary question, in one of your lectures I believe Dr. Baraki spoke about being active at work and it sort of not counting as exercise in terms of health benefits. It was brief and I dont know if I fully captured the nuance of this.
She lifts heavy boxes often at work I’m wondering if I should work around this with programming or if it even counts as some of the weekly moderate intensity minutes
Also I’d love to read the reference just for curiosity sake if it’s on hand and not a big deal!
Thank you so much for all you do at barbell medicine!
Does she have a physician who has discussed any of this with her?
In some sense, people need to understand why something that usually does not cause any symptoms (like high blood pressure) need to be treated. This often entails discussing potential consequences in order to guide understanding on the matter. Fortunately, high blood pressure usually does not tend to cause problems over the course of hours/days/weeks, but rather over years, so there is typically time to get things under control - and I often use this as a point of reassurance when having these conversations. We are treating the BP in order to reduce the risk of bad/serious things happening, but we have time to get this done.
No her physician just said she’d check again next time she gets checked but to lose weight and start eating healthier.
I will start with this discussion and do my best to get her to buy in to lifestyle change and not worry too much. And see how next appointment goes.
I don’t think she’s obese but maybe. Definitely overweight. So I think starting there is priority