My mother has hypertension and has been on BP meds for years. The last few months she has had several "episondes" where she will be winding down for the night and she will have a BP spike. Twice she has been hospitalized and they have ran a battery or tests and come up with nothing. Her heart is in good shape, but I am afraid that if this pattern continues she will end up having a stroke. The latest episode landed her in the hospital for 3 days and the doctor ended up checking her for adrenal cancer. He finally came back and said that it was linked to her anxiety, so he tripled her medication and added Paxil. She couldn't stand the BP so high and the Paxil made her worse, so she is no longer on Paxil and he lowered her from 360mg to 120mg. I don't buy that it is her anxiety because if it were she would have these episodeds at any time of the day. What would cause her BP to spike at night?
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Q: What would cause a persons BP to spike at night?
Medication is not the answer. If the Dr said she has anxiety, you should find out what
he/she meant. sounds like your mother worries about her own BP?? is this true?
Is there something in her life that is causing her stress? Look for these type of answers first before thinking about medication.
I have the same thing and I've taken every test know to man and have tried serveral medications. I, too, have been in the hospital twice. I'm sitting here now afraid of the night because I know my blood pressure is going to spike up. It is mostly fine during the day, but like a monster coming at night, it begins to increase at around 4:00 p.m. and usually around ten is full blown, no matter what medication I've taken and no matter how little sodium or food I've eaten. I'm afraid to be calm and relaxed at night because it raises up without cause. I'm on a very low sodium diet and I keep myself calm, but NOTHING IS WORKING to stop the night spikes. I've seen three different types of doctors. I'm about to go to have my third MRA, this time for Aortic Arch. I've had to MIRs, etc, etc, etc. I'm scared all the time and worried about me because no one seems to know what is wrong with me. I can tell when it increases, because I feel sick to my stomach, scared, detached and anxious. IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE IN THIS GREAT WIDE WORLD WHO KNOWS WHAT THIS IS???
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Nighttime blood pressure spikes may be related to a nighttime cortisol spike. A supplement containing phosphytidyl serine usually helps lower this. My favorite is Seriphos.... it contains 1000mg of PS. Or there is one called "cortisol manager" that has less PS and some other ingredients. If you want to know if cortisol is spiking at night, call a company called Diagnos-Techs in Washington state 800-878-3787 and find a doctor near you who will do an Adrenal Stress Index test....this won't be an M.D., probably an N.D. or D.C. Magnesium helps as well but can cause diarrhea easily...most absorbable supplement: "Calm" by Natural Vitality. And increasing potassium helps greatly... baked potatoes, coconut water, vegetable juices.