How to Avoid White Coat Syndrome

White coat syndrome is when your blood pressure gets high due to visiting a doctor's office. It does not matter if it's the doctor, a nurse, or one of his assistants that is giving you the blood pressure test. The stress from thinking about this issue or even reading this article will raise your blood pressure. But if you follow some steps, you may be able to avoid white coat syndrome.

Instructions

• 1

  If you truly have high blood pressure, make sure you are taking your doses of blood pressure meds on time. They really do help a lot in reducing your blood pressure. Do not use white coat syndrome as a form of denial for high blood pressure.

• 2

  From the evening before you go to the doctor, stop drinking water. If you have less water, you will have lower blood pressure. The only reason you're not drinking water is so you can have a few uneventful doctor's visits without the high blood pressure speech. If you do this, make sure you test yourself so you know you don't have high blood pressure.

• 3

  On the way to the doctor, listen to pleasant music. Smile. Enjoy life. Drive slowly. Do everything to be relaxed on the way to the doctor. Ignore the stresses of your life Do not think or worry about white coat syndrome. What's on your mind can have a huge effect on blood pressure, so it's best to be relaxed as much as possible.

• 4

  Walk slowly into the doctor's office. Excessive physical exertion will raise blood pressure.

• 5

  Stay relaxed the whole time at the doctor. Meditate. Smile at the world. Close your eyes. If you have somebody with you, fall asleep while you wait, which will make you very relaxed and lower blood pressure

• 6

  After you get a normal blood pressure reading and avoided the high blood pressure speech, congratulate yourself on a job well done. You've conquered White Coat Syndrome on this visit.

• 7

  Tell your doctor about your white coat syndrome. This is the most important step.

  The doctor's job will be to determine how pervasive your white coat syndrome is. He calls it white coat hypertension, which is still just as serious as regular hypertension or high blood pressure. On one hand, your blood pressure may be normal during the rest of the day, which means blood pressure meds will give you hypotension (low blood pressure). On the other hand, high blood pressure during other stressful parts of the day (other than the doctor's visit) may warrant treatment of white coat hypertension. In many cases, the doctor will still want to prescribe you blood pressure meds anyway because if you're stressed from doctor's visits, you're probably suffering hypertension during the other stressful parts of your life. If you have other factors such as heart disease or overweight, your doctor might err on the side of caution and diagnose white coat hypertension. Your doctor will do what's right for you. If he prescribes you meds anyway, it's not a defeat. He's doing you a favor in treating white coat hypertension.