Ask The Experts
Disclaimer: The UCLA Health System cannot guarantee the accuracy of such information. The information is provided without warranty or guarantee of any kind and is for your knowledge only. Please speak to your Physician / HCP before making any changes to your care.
Need Advice?
Get your questions directly answered by experts! Email us at the address below, and we will send your requests directly to a contributor and reply with their expert opinion. Additionally, past responses will be published on this page to serve as an information resource. Please use this email for short, general inquiries. For medical checkups, please schedule an appointment on our homepage.
Hypertension / Blood Pressure
Q: What is the easiest way to get blood pressure tested?
A: Blood pressure cuffs can be purchased for around $20 at a pharmacy. You could also ask your doctor if they can prescribe it, so that your insurance may cover it. Outside of your home, you can typically go to a pharmacy or even some grocery stores with pharmacies and find some blood pressure machines there.
Answered by Dr. Carolyn Kim
Q: Is there a preference between manual and automatic blood pressure machines?
A: Right now, automatic is the standard at most testing sites because it is faster. The preference really comes down to convenience and reliability, and automatic machines are more consistent because there is no chance of personal error in readings. However, not all blood pressure machines are created equal and many can be slightly to extremely inaccurate. It's important to make sure the machine you are using works, and you can go to a local pharmacy to calibrate your machine or make sure the readings are accurate.
Answered by Dr. Sean Lei
Q: What is "white coat hypertension"?
A: White coat hypertension is when your blood pressure goes up in a medical setting because of anxiety or nervousness. For example, someone may normally have a healthy blood pressure, but in the office it may read around 130/80 or higher simply due to stress at that moment. Back home, you can test your blood pressure and see if it is normal.
Answered by Dr. Carolyn Kim
Q: How do you approach treating a patient with hypertension and kidney disease? Does the kidney disease make it worse?
A: Hypertension is one of the causes of kidney disease, but if the kidney disease becomes severe enough, it makes the hypertension even worse can create a feedback loop. These cases continue to get worse and require intervention through blood pressure medication. For patients with diabetes that have protein leakages, there are also some medications that treat both hypertension and protein in the urine. In these instances, we usually take a "two birds with one stone" approach as long as the patient can be monitored closely and given medication gradually.
Answered by Dr. Sean Lei
Nutrition
Q: How does sodium affect the blood pressure for patients with kidney disease?
A: Sodium is one of the key electrolytes. We need to have sodium, but we can't have too little or too much. When we consume our sodium, 99% is removed naturally through our kidneys. However for patients with kidney disease, this ability to remove sodium isn't as robust and it takes more time. And when we have a lot of salt at one time, it can really shoot up blood pressure.
Answered by Dr. Sean Lei