Unrelated to topic but I was in hospital recently and nurses came around to do vital,blood pressure oxygen temperature.i was having a high blood pressure. Often I lay with crossed legs but a nurse told me to uncross my legs and blood pressure went down. Why why cross legs increase blood pressure ?

  • Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org
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    12 hours ago

    Leg muscles are one of the biggest muscles in the body and flexing those will increase blood pressure during it. Aka doing squats and blood pressure shooting up during it.

    Sitting cross legged probably activates those enough to increase blood pressure.

    • vrek@programming.devOP
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      11 hours ago

      Ok I can kinda agree but I wasn’t cross legged. Just laying with right ankle on top of left ankle

      • Otter@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        I may be wrong, but I think holding a slightly cross legged position does still require some muscle contraction, and it may cause some compression over having your legs relaxed and spread apart. Also, if you’re lying on your back, then there might be a slight pressure difference from having one leg higher than the rest of your body.

        The way you’re describing it, all of these factors will only change the pressure very slightly.

        It could also be that you were more relaxed during the second reading, and so that time was the most important contributor. For example, white coat hypertension

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_coat_hypertension