Hi, I just came back from my emergency dept. because i wasnt feeling right, they took my vitals and my blood pressure read 178/98, they said it was a little high, and that was it.. is there anything i should do and is this really high?  Im a 27 year old female and my mother just suffered a heart attack on thursday
Hello and thank you for using Chat Doctor. I carefully read your question and I understand your concern. I will try to explain and give you my opinion. We talk about hypertension if we have mean values that exceeds 140/90 mmHg. It is normal to have higher blood pressure values after a physical or an emotional stress, so it is important to judge on mean day and night values. Hypertension is divided in two groups: essential or idiopathic hypertension without an identifiable cause and secondary hypertension, usually in young ages, meaning that is a secondary cause of it. This cause might be a renal disease, an endocrine problem, a cardiovascular pathology. As you explain, your mother had a heart attach before. This might have caused a little stress on you and this high values might be normal. The fact that it is a family history with cardiovascular problem should make us much alert with you even your young age. If I was your treating doctor I will recommend a full check up with blood test analyze, an electrocardiogram, echocardiography and a pressure holder monitoring to check your mean values. Only after this we can be sure if is just a stressed period or something else. Hope I was helpful. Best regards.