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Muddled Truth About Blood Pressure
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By Michael Brady
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Health Insider: Hypertension July 27, 2009
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Two major phenomena can muddle your blood pressure reading and make it difficult to gauge whether you have true hypertension. The first is white coat hypertension, when blood pressure is high at the doctor's office because of nerves--but otherwise normal. The second is masked hypertension, when blood pressure is normal at the doctor's office but sporadically high in everyday life.
While these conditions are generally not something to worry about on their own, they do raise concerns about what may happen down the line: Do people with white coat and masked hypertension go on to develop sustained hypertension later in life? A European study has some answers on the white coat phenomenon (exit site, American Heart Association).
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