(Serena Gordon, HealthDay News) — If you dread seeing the doctor and your blood pressure reading always seems to be high at the doctor’s office, a new review says you should take those elevated readings seriously.
The problem is called white-coat hypertension (because of doctors’ traditional white coats) and it may signal an underlying problem.
The research defined white-coat hypertension as elevated readings at the doctor’s office, along with normal blood pressure elsewhere. People who had untreated white-coat hypertension had double the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke compared with people with normal blood pressure.
The odds of having a heart attack or stroke were also about one-third higher for those with white-coat hypertension, according to the new review. Their risk of dying prematurely from any cause was also increased by about a third compared to people with no blood pressure problems. (…)