I usually have blood pressure at 121 but sometimes I check it on the monitor at shoppers drug mart and its way up to 160, should I go to the doctor? Today my reading was Systolic 161 Diastolic 88 and my pulse was 51, not normal readings for me. I am 55 years male.Ken
Hello Thanks for posting here. A BP of 161/88 is definitely high. But depends on a lot of other factors also. Like your activity, mental stress at that time. Also, one high reading of blood pressure is not diagnosed as high blood pressure or hypertension. For a diagnosis of hypertension to be established, there must be at least three high readings one week apart. If all readings are consistently high, then you need to be started on blood pressure medications. So my advice to you is to take BP recordings during different times of the day one per week at a resting state at home for three weeks. As of now there is nothing to worry about. Regards