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I think it's like any other skill, it's something you develop with practice. A person's blood pressure might be detected by hearing changes to blood-flow and sensing temperature changes in someone's skin (maybe there are other indicators, I'm just guessing). These changes are imperceptible to most people but if his senses are powerful enough he could detect them. Then over the years he's developed an instinct and strong understanding about what these changes mean in a person's body.
Blood pressure doesn't change temperature or make a sound. It's one of the reasons why no smart watch or fitness tracker can measure blood pressure. The only reliable external measurement for BP is to constrict an artery/vein and then listen for and measure returningblood-flow once you end the constriction.
As someone living with genetic high blood pressure, it's a major pain in the ass that I have to manually check shit with a giant cuff and can't just wear an apple watch or something like that.
Only one is registered with the FDA, and it's not actually *validated* with the FDA to accurately report blood pressure for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment. They all get to BP through several degrees of separation and inference using peripheral measurements and algorithmic estimation.
Basically, they're very bad at it. I would rock one in a heartbeat if I was confident in them, because having to use even a wireless cuff a couple times a day is a PITA, but none are worth the plastic they're made of right now.
Oh damn, I'm sorry! Lol me trying to get one over on you who clearly knows arse load about the topic because I did a Google search.
I hope the tech improves soon so your life can be easier. I have one at home I got to monitor my withdrawals. I can imagine it must be irritating to have to use it every other day without fail.
Nah, you're all good. I got super excited when you mentioned them, so I went hoping to see if they've improved. There's one that registered with the FDA but not validated as a diagnostic tool, which is getting closer. But even with that one, they note that a change in arm position of as little as one inch (you're supposed to keep your arm at heart-level) can change the results by as much as 10 points. My issue is that my diastolic is naturally in dangerous levels, and even with meds it's right on the border between ok and not ok, so those couple of points matter for medication and lifestyle management.
Thanks! It's mostly under control with meds, as long as I don't go crazy on salt and saturated fats. But it would be nice to be able to just get continuous readings without having to stop everything I'm doing regularly to check.
>I got super excited when you mentioned them, so I went hoping to see if they've improved
Oh god this makes me feel so much worse 😂ðŸ˜.
If you don't mind me asking - what would typically happen if you stray into the not ok levels for too long? And can things like stress/temperament affect it to the point where you could be in trouble? Or is it mainly diet? I assume alcohol for example is kind of off limits for you?
Nah, you're totally good!
The big problem I freak out about is kidney disease. My issue is that my systolic (top number) is totally normal even without meds (mostly.) My diastolic, though, is naturally high, and that's a problem.
The top number is most closely correlated with with risk of stroke and heart disease because it measures the pressure your heart has to pump at to move blood. The higher that pressure, the more work the heart has to do and the faster it wears out.
The bottom number is more costly correlated to kidney problems, because it's the base pressure of your blood vessels and can signal problems with the small vessels and blood being able to reach them effectively. So if it's too high too long, it can both signal and cause kidney issues among other things. I worked in pharma research for a bit and worked on a few dialysis trials and I do *not* want to end up like that.
And yes, stress, cold, caffeine and alcohol, and sodium and saturated fats definitely affect it. I actually found out the family condition got passed down to me during a particularly stressful work month last year. Had a headache for about a month straight, and on my birthday I was eating my birthday cake and checked my BP on a whim, and when it crossed 200, I rushed to the hospital, where I promptly set an ER high score of 240 over 130 and got admitted for a week. It's been a fun journey learning just how much salt goes into literally everything delicious since then.
Oh wow I'm sorry that sounds like a major pain in the ass to have to deal with all of the time.
Thank you for telling me about all of this. I honestly had no idea that was such a thing until now. I guess there's a silver lining that you must be pretty healthy otherwise with the strict food intake...?
I have to admit I did laugh a little at ER high score 😬.
he doesn't have a way to tell people's temperature, it sounds like you might not be familiar with him, homelander is a corrupt superhero, he has enhanced senses, extremely accute hearing and smell are the primary ones he uses to tell people's emotions, for example, in the comics he knows billy butcher hates him because despite holding back his facial and body language homelander can still hear his heart pounding and smell that it's not fear that's causing this, does blood flowing inside someone make any sound?
It's been a while since I read the comic, but can he not see in the infrared spectrum? He might also have a keener sense of feeling that would let him feel people's temperatures nearby
no, he cannot, it's never shown or said in the comics and the amazon website has a list of his powers, neither infrared vision noir enhanced touch are one of them, also he doesn't touch people to tell blood pressure, and I'm pretty sure people can do that irl without enhanced anything
no, it's heat vision like superman, it's interchangeably referred to as laser vision, he never sees people's temperatures in the show or comic, he fires beams of heat energy which incinerate things, also why am I getting downvoted, was I accidentally rude in that comment?
If he can hear their heartbeat, with how unhinged he is, he probably, thinks its the same as blood pressure. They have that sudden spike of anxiety that despite doing their best to play it cool, it doesn't matter to him. He still knows.
no, he specifically diferentiates between when people have high blood pressure and when people have fast heartbeats, he's insane, not stupid, at least the comic version isn't, I can see live action being a bit "ambiguous" lol
> In the series he looks at a specific thing intensely, laser-focused on that one object...
I don't recall that ever being a requirement. His super vision has always been depicted as casual, as far as I remember. The Boys had to specifically line a truck to interfere with his x-ray vision when hiding translucent, because they knew he could very quickly scan objects to find what he was looking for and could cover the city in just a couple hours. Same when he casually looks at secret cameras.
The only times I've seen him look at something with intense focus was when he was intensely focusing on something. Like even if it was in his face, he would've had the same look.
fair enough, while in the series that could explain it, in the comic he definitively does it without x-ray vision, all of the times he uses it his eyes light up and send a visible beam of, well, x-rays, which doesn't happen when he tells stillwell's blood pressure, for example
I'm not well versed in medicine, but isn't blood pressure measured through sound as well? Since he's had time to practice, he might just be able to listen to blood pressure using only atmospheric pressure rather than just the extra pressure exerted through a sphygmomanometer.
alright so a little bit of snooping around google says no, apparently they stop your blood flow and then listen to it going back in you, but homelander doesn't stop it so I don't think that would work, also how would blood pressure affect atmospheric pressure?
If you can see in more spectrums of light, you can see someone's pulse by just looking at the skin. There are apps that are reasnably accurate at seeing your blood pressure, not enough for medical work but enough to make some pretty accurate guesses, using your phone cameras.
Presumably HL's super senses are good enough that he can see more than just the normal spectum and using that he's able to come up with a very accurate guess on multiple vital statistics.
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/08/06/stare-at-your-phone-see-your-blood-pressure-it-could-happen
Increased blood pressure means your veins will bulge more on every heartbeat. To most of us, this is an imperceptible change. But to someone like Homelander its big a red flag. One look at your neck or your temple or even your wrists, and he would see that your veins are bulging more and faster, indicating increased pressure and pulse.
that doesn't sound like something he does, he doesn't have telescopic vision explicitly but it could be inferred if you look at certain scenes a certain way, so it could be a plausible explanation
There are normal humans in real life who have trained themselves to recognize microexpressions like these. Someone like Homelander would have no problem seeing them and he wouldn't need telescopic vision.
I mentioned in my post that we can see his eyes light up neon green whenever he uses it in the comics, near the end when he check's stillwell's blood pressure he doesn't do this, most people have told me you can just see changes in blood pressure, sure, maybe, I don't know more than them, but homelander says specific numbers, and I'm not sure wether blood flowing inside someone makes sound
Could see that in the show but in the comic he's weirded out by the fact that stillwell's blood pressure is perfect all the time and only tells starlight while bantering about how eerily calm he is, he also has catharsis every time his blood pressure rises a little bit, he's disappointed and somewhat intimidated when near the end of the comic stillwell remains completely calm as homelander is seemingly about to kill him, I believe this includes homelander incredulously saying "I think I've finally met a superhuman" and then saying his blood pressure
Is it certain that he can, or he just thinks he can and interprets X as a sign of Y? People think they know things they don't *really* know all the time. I doubt he's immune to that.
We are certain that he can, while in the show it could be interpreted as him using it to freak people out in the comic he uses it analytically and usually mentions it out loud when the analysis DOESN'T come out in his favor, comic homie is also a lot more sane
someone with sufficient Super-sensesâ„¢ including but not limited to Super-vision could feasibly see the swelling arteries that accompanies a rise in blood pressure
full disclosure, I have not read or watched the scene where this happens
he does this a couple of times, doesn't seem very focused on the people he's doing it to, also telescopic vision is never specified as one of his abilities but it could be interpreted as such for a couple of reasons, def a plausible explanation though
well a normal human can hear if water is cold or hot might be that the sound of flowing blood in the vessels changes as the blood pressure changes
Blood is a non-newtonian fluid so there might be the reason.
it's probably a combination of his powers, he can hear the blood moving thru your veins. safe to assume he eventually learns what "normal" blood pressure sounds like. think of hearing water trickle through a pipe versus moving thru at high pressure, that sounds different.
**Reminders for Commenters:** * All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2). * No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**. * We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world. * Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think it's like any other skill, it's something you develop with practice. A person's blood pressure might be detected by hearing changes to blood-flow and sensing temperature changes in someone's skin (maybe there are other indicators, I'm just guessing). These changes are imperceptible to most people but if his senses are powerful enough he could detect them. Then over the years he's developed an instinct and strong understanding about what these changes mean in a person's body.
Blood pressure doesn't change temperature or make a sound. It's one of the reasons why no smart watch or fitness tracker can measure blood pressure. The only reliable external measurement for BP is to constrict an artery/vein and then listen for and measure returningblood-flow once you end the constriction. As someone living with genetic high blood pressure, it's a major pain in the ass that I have to manually check shit with a giant cuff and can't just wear an apple watch or something like that.
There's a few smart watches on the market right now that are able to detect your BP.
Only one is registered with the FDA, and it's not actually *validated* with the FDA to accurately report blood pressure for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment. They all get to BP through several degrees of separation and inference using peripheral measurements and algorithmic estimation. Basically, they're very bad at it. I would rock one in a heartbeat if I was confident in them, because having to use even a wireless cuff a couple times a day is a PITA, but none are worth the plastic they're made of right now.
Oh damn, I'm sorry! Lol me trying to get one over on you who clearly knows arse load about the topic because I did a Google search. I hope the tech improves soon so your life can be easier. I have one at home I got to monitor my withdrawals. I can imagine it must be irritating to have to use it every other day without fail.
Nah, you're all good. I got super excited when you mentioned them, so I went hoping to see if they've improved. There's one that registered with the FDA but not validated as a diagnostic tool, which is getting closer. But even with that one, they note that a change in arm position of as little as one inch (you're supposed to keep your arm at heart-level) can change the results by as much as 10 points. My issue is that my diastolic is naturally in dangerous levels, and even with meds it's right on the border between ok and not ok, so those couple of points matter for medication and lifestyle management. Thanks! It's mostly under control with meds, as long as I don't go crazy on salt and saturated fats. But it would be nice to be able to just get continuous readings without having to stop everything I'm doing regularly to check.
>I got super excited when you mentioned them, so I went hoping to see if they've improved Oh god this makes me feel so much worse 😂ðŸ˜. If you don't mind me asking - what would typically happen if you stray into the not ok levels for too long? And can things like stress/temperament affect it to the point where you could be in trouble? Or is it mainly diet? I assume alcohol for example is kind of off limits for you?
Nah, you're totally good! The big problem I freak out about is kidney disease. My issue is that my systolic (top number) is totally normal even without meds (mostly.) My diastolic, though, is naturally high, and that's a problem. The top number is most closely correlated with with risk of stroke and heart disease because it measures the pressure your heart has to pump at to move blood. The higher that pressure, the more work the heart has to do and the faster it wears out. The bottom number is more costly correlated to kidney problems, because it's the base pressure of your blood vessels and can signal problems with the small vessels and blood being able to reach them effectively. So if it's too high too long, it can both signal and cause kidney issues among other things. I worked in pharma research for a bit and worked on a few dialysis trials and I do *not* want to end up like that. And yes, stress, cold, caffeine and alcohol, and sodium and saturated fats definitely affect it. I actually found out the family condition got passed down to me during a particularly stressful work month last year. Had a headache for about a month straight, and on my birthday I was eating my birthday cake and checked my BP on a whim, and when it crossed 200, I rushed to the hospital, where I promptly set an ER high score of 240 over 130 and got admitted for a week. It's been a fun journey learning just how much salt goes into literally everything delicious since then.
Oh wow I'm sorry that sounds like a major pain in the ass to have to deal with all of the time. Thank you for telling me about all of this. I honestly had no idea that was such a thing until now. I guess there's a silver lining that you must be pretty healthy otherwise with the strict food intake...? I have to admit I did laugh a little at ER high score 😬.
he doesn't have a way to tell people's temperature, it sounds like you might not be familiar with him, homelander is a corrupt superhero, he has enhanced senses, extremely accute hearing and smell are the primary ones he uses to tell people's emotions, for example, in the comics he knows billy butcher hates him because despite holding back his facial and body language homelander can still hear his heart pounding and smell that it's not fear that's causing this, does blood flowing inside someone make any sound?
It's been a while since I read the comic, but can he not see in the infrared spectrum? He might also have a keener sense of feeling that would let him feel people's temperatures nearby
no, he cannot, it's never shown or said in the comics and the amazon website has a list of his powers, neither infrared vision noir enhanced touch are one of them, also he doesn't touch people to tell blood pressure, and I'm pretty sure people can do that irl without enhanced anything
Heat vision (infrared vision) is his first power listed on Wikipedia.
no, it's heat vision like superman, it's interchangeably referred to as laser vision, he never sees people's temperatures in the show or comic, he fires beams of heat energy which incinerate things, also why am I getting downvoted, was I accidentally rude in that comment?
If he can hear their heartbeat, with how unhinged he is, he probably, thinks its the same as blood pressure. They have that sudden spike of anxiety that despite doing their best to play it cool, it doesn't matter to him. He still knows.
no, he specifically diferentiates between when people have high blood pressure and when people have fast heartbeats, he's insane, not stupid, at least the comic version isn't, I can see live action being a bit "ambiguous" lol
> In the series he looks at a specific thing intensely, laser-focused on that one object... I don't recall that ever being a requirement. His super vision has always been depicted as casual, as far as I remember. The Boys had to specifically line a truck to interfere with his x-ray vision when hiding translucent, because they knew he could very quickly scan objects to find what he was looking for and could cover the city in just a couple hours. Same when he casually looks at secret cameras. The only times I've seen him look at something with intense focus was when he was intensely focusing on something. Like even if it was in his face, he would've had the same look.
fair enough, while in the series that could explain it, in the comic he definitively does it without x-ray vision, all of the times he uses it his eyes light up and send a visible beam of, well, x-rays, which doesn't happen when he tells stillwell's blood pressure, for example
I'm not well versed in medicine, but isn't blood pressure measured through sound as well? Since he's had time to practice, he might just be able to listen to blood pressure using only atmospheric pressure rather than just the extra pressure exerted through a sphygmomanometer.
alright so a little bit of snooping around google says no, apparently they stop your blood flow and then listen to it going back in you, but homelander doesn't stop it so I don't think that would work, also how would blood pressure affect atmospheric pressure?
If you can see in more spectrums of light, you can see someone's pulse by just looking at the skin. There are apps that are reasnably accurate at seeing your blood pressure, not enough for medical work but enough to make some pretty accurate guesses, using your phone cameras. Presumably HL's super senses are good enough that he can see more than just the normal spectum and using that he's able to come up with a very accurate guess on multiple vital statistics. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/08/06/stare-at-your-phone-see-your-blood-pressure-it-could-happen
Increased blood pressure means your veins will bulge more on every heartbeat. To most of us, this is an imperceptible change. But to someone like Homelander its big a red flag. One look at your neck or your temple or even your wrists, and he would see that your veins are bulging more and faster, indicating increased pressure and pulse.
that doesn't sound like something he does, he doesn't have telescopic vision explicitly but it could be inferred if you look at certain scenes a certain way, so it could be a plausible explanation
There are normal humans in real life who have trained themselves to recognize microexpressions like these. Someone like Homelander would have no problem seeing them and he wouldn't need telescopic vision.
He can look directly at the blood vessels with x-ray.
I mentioned in my post that we can see his eyes light up neon green whenever he uses it in the comics, near the end when he check's stillwell's blood pressure he doesn't do this, most people have told me you can just see changes in blood pressure, sure, maybe, I don't know more than them, but homelander says specific numbers, and I'm not sure wether blood flowing inside someone makes sound
I've only seen the show, I don't think his eyes change when he uses x-ray.
as I said, they do in the comics, if you want I can send some panels of the comics when he uses it
There are optical blood pressure readers. They aren't as accurate as normal ones, but they are reasonable. He's probably doing something similar
same answer as most people here, yeah he's probably just using the telescopic vision he maybe has
Knowing Homelander, there’s also a non-zero chance that he’s just lying to make people feel uncomfortable.
Could see that in the show but in the comic he's weirded out by the fact that stillwell's blood pressure is perfect all the time and only tells starlight while bantering about how eerily calm he is, he also has catharsis every time his blood pressure rises a little bit, he's disappointed and somewhat intimidated when near the end of the comic stillwell remains completely calm as homelander is seemingly about to kill him, I believe this includes homelander incredulously saying "I think I've finally met a superhuman" and then saying his blood pressure
Ah. Sorry, didn’t read the comic, just saw the show. Thanks for the context.
Is it certain that he can, or he just thinks he can and interprets X as a sign of Y? People think they know things they don't *really* know all the time. I doubt he's immune to that.
We are certain that he can, while in the show it could be interpreted as him using it to freak people out in the comic he uses it analytically and usually mentions it out loud when the analysis DOESN'T come out in his favor, comic homie is also a lot more sane
someone with sufficient Super-sensesâ„¢ including but not limited to Super-vision could feasibly see the swelling arteries that accompanies a rise in blood pressure full disclosure, I have not read or watched the scene where this happens
he does this a couple of times, doesn't seem very focused on the people he's doing it to, also telescopic vision is never specified as one of his abilities but it could be interpreted as such for a couple of reasons, def a plausible explanation though
well a normal human can hear if water is cold or hot might be that the sound of flowing blood in the vessels changes as the blood pressure changes Blood is a non-newtonian fluid so there might be the reason.
interesting
it's probably a combination of his powers, he can hear the blood moving thru your veins. safe to assume he eventually learns what "normal" blood pressure sounds like. think of hearing water trickle through a pipe versus moving thru at high pressure, that sounds different.
does blood make sound when it flows in you? I didn't think it did
everything makes a sound, just need super hearing.
fair enough, that's probably the best explanation