High-ish blood pressure

Hello,

I went to see my primary care physician because I was concerned that I might have sleep apnea (turns out I do not!). When the nurse took vitals, my blood pressure was elevated (128/79). I didn’t really think anything of it, chalking it up to “white coat hypertension.” Then, I went to see a sleep-medicine doc a week later and my blood pressure was even higher (139/83). I am male, 24 years old, 6’1" tall, 200 lbs, with a waist circumference of 33". My diet is quite low in saturated fat (far below 10% daily caloric intake) and I do not use alcohol or tobacco. I am on my second run through 12 week strength (which I have made an unbelievable amount of progress on, by the way) and I comply with all the conditioning. In general, I think I’m a pretty healthy guy.

I’m very confused, as I don’t really carry any risk factors for high blood pressure, but it was still elevated over multiple readings. My doctor told me that his usual recommendation is weight loss, exercise, and reduced sodium intake, but I don’t need to lose any weight, I already exercise a lot, and my sodium intake isn’t high by any means. As I said earlier, I was concerned about sleep apnea, which I know can result in elevated blood pressure, but a sleep study confirmed that I do not have sleep apnea. Does Barbell Medicine have any ideas as to what may be causing this? Are there any tests I should ask my doctor about? Should I even be concerned?

You guys are doing great work. The 12 week strength template is magic. I finally squatted 200 kg. Thank you.

It sounds like you probably don’t have high blood pressure, but the next step to figure this out once and for all would be a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor.

This is actually the gold standard method for diagnosis, and I’m a bit surprised your doctor didn’t recommend it already.