blood pressure

[deepurple]

i want to ask and share something here..

during do my task in ward as an observation nurse which is taking vital sign to all patient..

many of them would said that "my pressure will be high from previous one because i just taking lunch or dinner"

My question is.. is that after taking meal will affect our blood pressure reading?

if it is so? why?

i can't see how it is related to blood pressure

can someone explain to me?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Some people, including me, are salt-sensitive. My blood pressure and heart rate increase shortly after eating a fast-food meal or other high-sodium food items.

I should also mention that I am a black female. Salt sensitivity is more prevalent in African-American people. It is also more prevalent in females.

http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/content/12/3/399.full.pdf

African American subjects seem to be especially sensitive to the role of dopamine in salt sensitivity. Dopamine is a vasodilator with a natriuretic effect on the kidney. However, when salt-sensitive African Americans are faced with an increased sodium load, they do not have a corresponding increase of dopamine, resulting in increased sodium retention.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/407741_3

[Nibbles1]

Eating drinking and smoking will cause a BP to rise. Always ask if they have eaten, drank, or smoked within 15 prior to taking their BP. This is what I was taught in school.

[Nibbles1]

Should be 15 minutes.