Fluctuating blood pressure is something that happens to everyone, and can occur due to a variety of conditions such as what position a person is in (are they sitting down? standing? lying down), what time of the day it is, the size and tightness of the pressure cuff used during a doctor’s visit, and so on.  However, when you have high blood pressure, the periods when your blood pressure is high can cause some problems, especially if your diastolic pressure (aka the lower number in a blood pressure reading) is constantly above 90 (a person qualifies as having high blood pressure if their blood pressure is 140/90 or higher).

There’s not much doctors can do though about fluctuating blood pressure, as while a number of factors such as obesity, unhealthy diet, family history, age, inactivity, and race (African-Americans are more likely to develop high blood pressure than other races) can contribute to increasing one’s risk of getting high blood pressure, the causes for it are still unknown.

At best, the doctor can only monitor your blood pressure for possible causes and to determine at what times during the day and night the blood pressure peaks.  In some cases, fluctuating blood pressure can be brought about either by taking a new medication, or by taking one that doesn’t last for twenty-four hours.

The best solution I would recommend if you have this problem is to continuously monitor your blood pressure.  People with high blood pressure are usually supposed to have their blood pressure monitored once a month by a doctor, but if your blood pressure is fluctuating a good deal, he or she will probably have you keep track of it three times a day in the morning, afternoon, as well as at night.

It’s recommended that the first monitoring time be in the morning after you just wake up and before you take your blood pressure medication or eat or drink anything.  I’m going to stress again that if you have fluctuating high blood pressure, you should definitely see your doctor, because the periods where your blood pressure is at its highest puts you at the same risk level for strokes and heart attacks as someone with uncontrolled high blood pressure.