The FastDay Forum

I've been doing 5:2 since the beginning of February and had high hopes for my up coming annual MOT but I was bitterly disappointed this morning. I went to get the routine bloods taken before the actual docs appt and the phlebotomist recorded my BP at 152/86! she rechecked it and it was still 148/84. Now I do take meds for hypertension but it has been running at 120/70 for the last two years (since I first lost a reasonable amount of weight. As you can imagine I am now really wondering if this is just an unrelated blip or if I am doing the wrong thing trying to fast and worrying about calories etc.

I suppose I will have to see what the bloods are like when I get the results back but I'm wondering if I should just stick with the old low carb regime. Any input from our Nerds?

Hi miffy,

120/70 to 148/84 does seem like a significant increase, I'm not an expert but the questions that occur to me are:

• was there anything different about the testing circumstances compared with previous occasions - different time of day / you were especially stressed / it was before/after a meal or a fast?
• apart from doing 5:2, what else has changed in your diet since the previous test? You mentioned you were previously on low-carb, so has your carb intake gone up?
• if your last test was a year ago and you started 5:2 in February then since your last BP reading you have had 8 months pre-5:2 and 4 months 5:2. Was your dietary intake during those 8 months 'same as before' or different in some way from the previous year or two?
• I see from the tracker you have lost 3kg on 5:2 - well done! But how does your weight compare with when you last had your BP read?

miffy49 - definitely stick to a low-carb diet. It's not the amount of calories you are eating, but where they're coming from.

Interesting, Miffy. I have had blood tests and blood pressure taken on three occasions since starting 5:2, first time was in doctor's surgery after nurse had taken blood from left arm so she put the cuff on my right arm, which has never happened before. Reading was 150/90, which I was horrified by, and she said to return in a couple of weeks for a retest. Second time was just pre- and post- minor surgical procedure (biopsy to check for skin cancer), both readings taken on left arm, first was 150/88 and second was 125/75 or thereabouts. Third time was back at the doctor's, before second blood test but on left arm - 148/85 I think. Considering I had blood pressure up to 140/90 in my twenties this might not seem too bad but exercise & veggie diet had brought it down to about 130/80 over the last few years. Since I retired in 2011 I have not had access to easy BP monitoring (there was a wellness station in the office) but I never expected to see these high readings out of the blue. The doctors are not at all worried, and maybe it is all "white coat" syndrome, but I am a little concerned - I am only 62 and have a long way to go yet, I hope...

[carorees]

Hi miffy

It's hard to tell from a one-time measurement. I'm sure the doc will measure it again when you go for the appointment. There are so many things that affect blood pressure, including stress, caffeine intake, temperature, time of day, hydration, that you really have to take several readings before you can know whether it is a genuine increase or just a chance blip.

Don't panic yet!

Hi Miffy,

What a disappointment for you. My husband is on 6 monthly blood tests and has never had his bp recorded by the phlebotomist. No wonder you had a high reading, these folk stick needles in you and suck out your blood!

I don't know what to say to you that will make you feel better, I just hope you stick with this and keep us updated on your progress and creaky Pete is right when he mentions 'white coat' syndrome. Virtual hug on it's way to you ..............

Ballerina x

Miffy - if your results were better, overall, on a low-carb diet, why don't you still keep doing the 5:2 WOE, but only eat low-carb foods?

I'm sure you've become quite used to having medical procedures done over the years, so I wouldn't have thought it was fear that made your BP rise!

I also have white coat syndrome. The doctor won't tell me what the readings are. Then I go home and monitor and the average is always good. So don't stress about a one off blood pressure reading. If your concerned then do self monitoring for a bit and see how you go.

Just one more thought Miffy, you can buy a digital blood pressure monitor for £8 inc p&p on eBay. They are easy to use and you can then do plenty of readings yourself. As Caroline has said, a one-off reading is not very reliable...

it could have been white coat styndrome and hoping that you would get the results that you want
i had major heart surgery last year and prior to this was on a bucket load of tablets for BP. After surgery i came off them and BP was settling nicely into the 125 - 130 range, then last check up at Drs cos i had rushed to get there etc it was up to 160 - not happy and he gott me to ewear a BP monitor for 24 hours to get a better idea - this came back with the 130 result that i was expecting

Hope it was just a white coat blip and that you are ok

Thanks all. I feel better for having somewhere to share ideas.

I'm not worried about the blood tests etc but I do hate having my BP taken as the cuff is always over one of my FMS tender points. It used to be bad enough with the old style sphygs but the new automatic type are evilly painful. I'm sure I read somewhere that the pressure tolerated during a BP reading is one of the FMS diagnostic tools used by French doctors!

I've had problems in the past with the BP meds and so theres always the added worry that it will be up and that some bright spark will want to start messing them about again! I really will have to try and get in with the GP who knows me best and who tends to let me do my own thing a lot of the time. I do have a little home monitor somewhere but it was always wildly lower than the GP readings so I've never been confident that it was accurate.

My BP had been going steadily down. I always found that the trigger weight for shooting it up was 14st4lb! My top weight was 15st 10lb but as I hit 11st 10lb I was hoping that the downtrend would have continued and that maybe they would consider reducing or stopping the tablets at last. No chance now!

Tomtank, I have always done well both with weight loss, BG levels and energy levels following a low carb diet. I was one of the old Yudkin groupies in the 60s and 70s and its always been my best bet for weight loss. I changed to 5:2 for the health benefits to try and improve my cognitive function which has been shot to bits by the FMS. I also believe that there has to be more to it than calories but I lost the plot carb wise over the last few weeks. I'd just got sick of never having chocolate or desserts and 5:2 sounded too good to be true. Seems it might be for me!

Next plan is to get back to serious low carb but with some 16/8 fasts and see what happens in another week when I get the blood results.

About blood pressure - 2 numbers - the top one is the stretch reading and the bottom the relax reading. The relax reading is a better indicator of what's happening. In this case it hasn't changed much '70 to 84' both within the normal range.
The top reading can change with stress, white coat syndrome or just because its painful to have the BP done.
I wouldn't be too concerned about the BP Miffy49, as you say, wait for the bloods to come back.

My thoughts exactly Jellibean. Thinking about it more rationally, in the past I had a dyastolic of 96 at one point so its vastly improved on that even if it is higher than the last couple of readings. Hopefully it will be better in a week or so when I manage to get an appointment for the full revue. I have had a bad few months with hubby being really poorly since just after Christmas and the resultant family and financial knock-on effects of that. I also had a particularly bad night with my joints last night so I reckon I have room for negotiation!

No expert but from measuring my own at home I can certainly support the notion of wide fluctuations. I would be wary of any one reading (good or bad news)

I think it depends on the nurse and/or machine. My normal bp is around 120/70. I've had some nurses read me incredibly low at like 100/60. I've had machines read me at 150/90. Those out of norm readings could be situational, although nothing was really any different than normal times that I recollect.