Is your doctor's office getting your blood pressure right? 9 ways to check. The Villages, FL.

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]After doing a little studying about taking my blood pressure at home, I found out over the last 20 years that my doctors, nurses, a lot of them haven't even been taking my blood pressure correctly according to the American Heart Association, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

[00:00:17]Let's go ahead and get started.

[00:00:18]>> [music] [music] >> Everybody, how you doing? I'm Russell Nelson down here in The Villages, Florida, and I'm going to say this right out of the shoot cuz this is really important. Before I even get started on this, I am not a doctor. I am not in the medical field at all. I'm just somebody that did some research about taking blood pressure, and the things that I found out are pretty incredible that I can't tell you how many times lately I've had my blood pressure taken incorrectly, and we're going to talk about some of the things that may really affect the medication that you're on, and I'm also going to show you a test just to prove the things that I found out about this, um, that that really, I actually, unbelievably could change the medication that you're on. I know it has for me. Anyway, let's get started on this, and I'm going to try to make this brief and to the point. I took, um, took a bunch of notes so I can make sure that I cover this.

[00:01:36]As most of you know, I kind of deep dive into a lot of these things, and I am not giving you advice. This whole video is going to be about maybe noticing some things that when you get your blood pressure taken, there may be some things that the person taking the blood pressure is doing wrong. And if you think about it, the consequences of that are the fact that you may be on the wrong medication, the wrong amount of medication, or maybe not need any medication at all.

[00:02:16]And that's exactly what kind of happened to me. So, I decided to come back and this I'll put the link to this. This is a fairly cheap, not cheap, but it's rated well and not expensive home blood pressure um monitor.

[00:02:33]And let me say before I even get started on this, I went and went to my cardiologist and had this calibrated.

[00:02:41]So, in other words, he took my blood pressure and then took we took the blood pressure with this and he showed me how to use it. And then I also have a second one which is Withings which is kind of battery operated rechargeable that is portable and every once in a while I'll make sure they are in agreement. So, let's talk about the things that I found out. I guess I should explain how this got started. And I used to fly a U-2 and before every mission, before we went up to go fly, they would take your blood pressure and I could remember one time if your blood pressure was high at all, you didn't fly. And and the next pilot would have to take your mission.

[00:03:28]So, we were all very conscious of our blood pressure and when you're going in to go fly a mission, get dressed up in a space suit, that tension or pressure suit, I shouldn't say space suit, pressure suit, that tension can raise your blood pressure easily.

[00:03:43]So, I remember one time the doctor saying to me as he went to go take my blood pressure, my arm was kind of dangling down a a bit on my knee and it was a little high, and he said, "Hey, give me your arm." And he held my arm up kind of like this, and he put it under his arm, and then he took my blood pressure there, and then magically I was within limits.

[00:04:04]So, anyway, that's that's my background, and that kind of stuck in the back of my head. Here goes, I'm going to go through these things, and they're things that I'm not telling you what to do, but when you go into the doctor's office and get your blood pressure taken, these are things that you should watch out for, and at the end of this, I'm going to show you actually demonstrate on here, using me as a guinea pig, to exactly how much of a difference some of these things can make. Everybody kind of says you should relax for 5 minutes. Now, you think about when you come into a doctor's office, you're kind of uptight, there's a bunch of sick people around, they get you up, they run you into the office, the nurse sits you down, plunks you on the table, starts talking to you about medications and all that type of thing. Your legs are dangling down on the table, they throw the cuff on there, they're still talking to you, you just walked in there, and then they take your blood pressure.

[00:05:05]And some people call it white coat syndrome, but I kind of look at it as you just got rushed into the doctor's office. Now, here's here's the thing, is when they designed what is {quote} normal, from what I could find out, the re the the limits were set at a relaxed state. So, it's not when you're out running around, it's not when you've been moving. They tell you that the studies were done with people that were sitting for 5 minutes, and that seems to be the general consensus. You should sit for 5 minutes. Now, that 5 minutes doesn't mean sitting there reading your phone, or talking to people, or doing anything.

[00:05:49]The people that were how they came up with these numbers were literally sitting there relaxed for 5 minutes. So, for you to take your blood pressure when you just jumped up on that table with your legs dangling down, your wrong arm probably in the wrong position is not the way the research was done. And each one of these things that I'm going to bring up can actually change those numbers. So, like I said, this is not necessarily to give advice, but it's kind of things to look out for when you go to the doctor's office because like I said, this may be the difference whether you're on medication or not. So, if you walk in and your blood pressure is 130, um your upper number and that's just the way I'll refer to it now so everybody understands, the upper number is 130, right? But you're taking it in the wrong manner or it's being taken in the wrong manner and all of a sudden now it's 140-something or 140, the doctor may put you on medication, whereas at 130, they may not have. So, that's what I'm talking about. So, let's talk about the cuff.

[00:06:59]This cuff right here is kind of a stiff cuff and it's really important that you have the right size cuff. So, if you're older and you've lost a lot of muscle mass in your arm and it's like dangling off when they go to take that blood pressure, um that's a problem right there. This one kind of fits and fits kind of snug and when it's put on, it should be put on, you can see right here, if you're doing this at home, this tube should come pretty much right down the center and just just loosely wrap that up that way. Now, here's here's the thing.

[00:07:38]You're supposed to be relaxing for 5 minutes. I found out for myself that if I sit here and relax with a cuff on, it's like anything else, you get used to relaxing with the cuff on.

[00:07:52]And so that's what I do when I'm really serious about numbers. Sometimes I'll just jump in take it, but anyway, that's it. It should be half an inch to an inch if you can fit it above this joint right here in your arm. So that's pretty much what it looks like.

[00:08:11]Now, I'm going to refer to my notes so I can make sure that I can get this.

[00:08:15]Um also, I've gone in a few times lately where the folks have actually said, "Oh, you don't need to roll up your cuff." Or I'll have a I have a polo shirt, kind of thick cotton. Um they just take it right over that. Don't let them do that.

[00:08:36]Get your shirt up. Take your shirt up before you get there. Wear a shirt that you can pull up or whatever and realize that you're going in. I've tried it myself. It definitely makes a difference whether you have the shirt on or not.

[00:08:50]Like I said, just to get your general blood pressure, it may not make a difference. But if you're going in to have a say a cardiologist talk about um medication, then uh it may be the differences as these cumulative points of doing things wrong may add up to the point where they put you on medication and you really don't need it.

[00:09:14]Big thing that almost everybody says, empty your bladder. I never knew this until I did this research. Empty your bladder. Don't go in to get your blood pressure taken without with having that feeling like you have to urinate or you're holding it in.

[00:09:30]Go to the bathroom beforehand and uh relieve that. That can uh actually uh change it 10 to 20 points from the research that I've just done looking at this.

[00:09:44]Don't have your legs crossed.

[00:09:47]That's another thing. That can actually change it two to eight. You can see how if you Now if you sat down with a full bladder, your legs crossed, you could have up to 15 points extra on on the and and we're just talking about the upper number right now.

[00:10:01]Just to make it easy. Like I said, this isn't scientific. Before you go in, drinking a cup of coffee, two cups of coffee in the morning, that's been known to actually raise it five to 25 points.

[00:10:13]Don't drink any coffee. Have some water and stuff like that. If and that can last up to hours afterwards, the caffeine that's in there. If you walk into a cold room, in other words, if you're cold, uh that can also change uh your blood pressure. Talking while you go in, you know, you walk in there and the nurse starts in with the questions cuz they're in a hurry. They're trying to get to the next person.

[00:10:45]And they start going, "Well, have you been depressed? What medications are you on?" In the meantime, the machine is going and you got all this stuff going on and off goes your blood pressure.

[00:10:58]Talking, you need to be silent. If the Like I said before, the cuff size is too small, if the cuff size is too small, that can raise it up also. It should be loose. I mean, I can fit like just you know, two fingers underneath of it. That's it. And then, positioning of the cuff. This is really important. And we're going to do a demo of this right now. So, I've been sitting here talking, so mine's mine's probably going to be high when I take this. But, we'll get we'll give it a shot and take it here. Uh you want your cuff. This is really important.

[00:11:37]The cuff, I should probably even have it elevated just a hair right here, which I don't. So, it that may add a few points onto it. You'll see.

[00:11:44]And the cuff was the wants to be here and not over clothing once again.

[00:11:51]Do not sit there with your arm dangling down and I'll show you what a difference that makes right now. So, let's go ahead and take this. Now, I'm talking, but All right, there's 147 over 82. Now, I took this just before we did this. I relaxed. I wasn't talking.

[00:12:18]I wasn't doing anything. I was just hanging out. And it was 120 something over 80, I think. I'll show you a picture of it cuz I took a picture. Now, all of a sudden, I've been doing all this, talking, getting keyed up about being in front of the microphone. And look at what it is. Now, if you walk in your doctor sees that.

[00:12:37]So, I'm going to try to sit here and not do anything for 5 minutes. Obviously, I'm not going to make you go through this. And we're going to see what it comes out to.

[00:12:48]Now, this was only 40 seconds rest. And look how much has dropped already.

[00:12:58]All right, this is actually only 3 minutes right here, 3 minutes of resting.

[00:13:14]So, as you can see, it's kind of stabilized. I had a cup two cups of coffee this morning and now I'm talking again. But um it's stabilized between 126 and 130 131 right there. I've taken a few of them. That seems as I Now, I'm going to shut up for a while and then I'm going to drop my arm down by my side and let's see what numbers we get.

[00:13:43]Now, as you can see, that's a huge difference and um that would make a difference of whether you're on medication or not. So, take that for what it's worth. This is an experiment of one. So, what I do is before I go to my doctor, when I know I'm going in, I will actually take my blood pressure for 4 or 5 days in the morning and the afternoon and get a general reading and I take it twice and I just kind of take the average of it.

[00:14:17]And uh I think you'll find out that you could go and say you have 120 something.

[00:14:23]You may go into the doctor's office and all of a sudden you go in there and you're 140. Well, you can turn around and say, "Hey, here's what I've been taking. I'm not 100% sure this is right."

[00:14:37]Anyway, that's a lot of what I discovered and I think it's really important that you take these things into consideration when you get your blood pressure taken because, like I said, you could walk in and 130 over 80 or, you know, if you're older, maybe 130 over 76 or something.

[00:14:56]Um and that wouldn't require blood pressure medicine, but you start combining all these factors in and you add them up together and it could make the difference. Those 10 points going up to 140, your doctor may not like that. Next thing you know, you're on losartan or lisinopril or whatever.

[00:15:17]So, that's a a good thing to remember. I hope this helps some people out and remember feet flat on the ground, you need a chair with the back, arm up to your heart. Oops, sorry. I probably hit the microphone there. Relax beforehand.

[00:15:35]The other thing that key you can do is ask the person, "Hey, before I leave after the appointment, could you if it seemed high, could you retake my blood pressure again before I leave?" And I've noticed mine have changed also. So anyway, I hope that maybe helps some people out to question some things or at least realize when I go into the doctor, "Hey, no, can you prop my arm up? I need the cuff at my heart level if you could do that for me." Anyway, that's it. That's your quick tip. I hope some people benefit from this. Have a great day and like I always say, I'll either see you out here on YouTube or I'll see you down in the Villages. Have a wonderful day.