Blood Pressure

Last week me and my groupmates were talking about blood pressure and athletes. I can't remember how the topic came about, but I do remember watching an episode from House where, well, House mentioned that athletes generally have low blood pressure. My PM agreed with me, but one of my groupmates argued differently. He said that athletes should have high blood pressure since their hearts pump blood with more force than that of non-athletes. What they have lower than normal is the number of heartbeats per minute - and maybe this is what I meant by 'low'.

Anyway, since I'm not a medicine student, I decided to google the issue and, well, just post it here. hehe. The search words "athletes" and "blood pressure" got me quite confused because the results gave me links that point to some articles stating that athletes have low b.p., and some that say otherwise. I didn't click on all the links at the first page, though. What seemed to be a reliable source to me was if the url somehow has the words 'health' or 'heart' or 'medicine', etc. - and that made me click on the link and read the article.

Finally, here's how I got good, concise articles from google: "do athletes tend to have low blood pressure?"... Nice, isn't it? Just like asking someone (and hey, google's the best search engine there is, right? So my idiotic search strings should be no problem for it). Sorry, I'm not good in doing more advanced searches. Nevertheless, Optimal Heart Health has this article that says:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than other people. It is also the case for many people who eat well and maintain a healthy weight.

I also stumbled upon this by the Mayo Clinic:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than do people who aren't as fit. So, in general, do nonsmokers and people who eat well and maintain a normal weight.

See? I was right, and House too! hehe.

Which reminds me, we're about to undergo the APE (Annual Physical Exam) this June. I hope I don't faint again after having a test tube-full of my blood sucked out of me. My best guess why I always faint after such seemingly simple medical procedure is that since I normally have low b.p., having a considerable amount of blood taken out of my body will cause my brain not to receive an adequate supply of blood and hence, dizziness or fainting.

I remember last year's APE: after the needle got out of my left arm's skin, I dashed from the clinic back to my desk (with a lame excuse that I have to get something) and remained seated until my lightheadedness was gone. haha! What a loser. The clinic is just a few meters walk from my desk, so dear fainting didn't get a chance to embarass me in front of many co-workers lined up in the clinic. Oh, but this time, they said they're going to conduct the APE in our company's annex office - which is located in the other building!

Whuuutt?!? Hmmm, ano kayang pwedeng technique ngayon?