topic Re: 📋 Could a Doctor's Age Bias Make Your Blood Pressure Worse? (AARP Article) in Healthy Living

📋 Could a Doctor's Age Bias Make Your Blood Pressure Worse? (AARP Article)

SummerOnTheWay1 — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 23:22:00 GMT

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!!

Is Your Doctor’s Age Bias Making Your High Blood Pressure Worse?

The undertreatment of hypertension in older adults could have serious health consequences.

By Kimberly Hayes, AARP. Published October 10, 2024.

Older adults are more likely than younger people to have high blood pressure and suffer from serious health conditions that can be caused or worsened by hypertension, such as heart disease and stroke. But research suggests that high blood pressure in older patients often isn’t being treated as aggressively as it should be.

A Harvard study found that more than 70 percent of older Americans who need more intensive treatment for high blood pressure aren’t receiving it, and some health experts say they think age bias could play a role in those decisions. The assumption by doctors that high blood pressure is inevitable after a certain age, and concerns about side effects of lower blood pressures on older people, could be factors in this undertreatment.

https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2024/age-bias-in-blood-pressure-management.html

Re: 📋 Could a Doctor's Age Bias Make Your Blood Pressure Worse? (AARP Article)

GailL1 — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 06:24:14 GMT

GOOD GRIEF - I cannot believe what I am reading here,

If my B/P got any lower than 120/70 I wouldn’t be able to stand up - much less move around. And I am only 5’ tall with heels on and 100 lbs soaking wet -

Normal according to the article is LESS THAN 120/80 - now I am in the 128/68 r range and doc thinks that is great. and I do too -

So who to believe? An unidentified Harvard research study(embedded link doesn’t work) or a doc that I have been seeing for the last (10) years or more. Guess which one I picked.

I have had low blood pressure in the past and yep it is scary -took me off of my BP meds

Constantly low blood pressure can be dangerous if it causes signs and symptoms such as:

Confusion
Dizziness
Nausea
Fainting
Fatigue
Neck or back pain
Headache
Blurred vision
Heart palpitations, or feelings that your heart is skipping a beat, fluttering or beating too hard or too fast

Source: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/the-facts-about-high-blood-pressure/low-blood-pressure-when-blood-pressure-is-too-low

I think if I were AARP, I would leave the advice of this type to a person’s doctor.