02 June 2010

White Coat Effect on Blood Pressure Readings

What is the "white coat effect"?

... Many people find their blood pressure rises when it is being measured in the presence of a [nurse or] doctor (with or without white coat) and this has cast doubt on the accuracy of these readings.'

Especially an attractive one! (As was pointed out by a colleague a couple of years ago when I had rather unexpectedly high blood pressure readings.)

More about the white coat effect here

More seriously, when is culinary salt going to be taxed - to help discourage its use? And perhaps food itself should be taxed more highly if it contains a lot of salt.

Other areas of concern include food labelling where excessive salt is disguised by not publishing the salt content, and only giving the (far lower) sodium content: I was horrified to find that a jar of Patak's Mango Pickle contains 4.4% sodium, which is equivalent to 10.6% salt! Wake up FSA!!!

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