Upper-arm and wrist blood pressure monitors for personal use offer ease of use, portability, and reliability. Furthermore they are quite economical and easy to operate.
Home monitoring will provide your own family physician with superior details to understand as well as manage your high blood pressure.
The American Heart Association as well as other professional medical groups suggest that individuals with hypertension or suspected high blood pressure levels frequently monitor themselves.
Because blood pressure monitors are quite common and do not need your doctor’s prescription to buy, home checking of your blood pressure is an easy, inexpensive and reliable step you can take to benefit your overall health.
Blood pressure is the pressure created by the blood against the sides of arteries at the time of cardiac contraction and rest (e.g., the pumping actions of the heart).
High Blood Pressure is a Deadly Serious Health Situation for Many Americans:
About one out of three American adults–31.3%–has high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is an important risk factor for heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and congestive heart failure. Heart disease and stroke are the 1st and 3rd leading causes of death in the USA.
More than 1 in 5 (22.4%) people with killer high blood pressure have no idea that they already have it.
Thankfully, high blood pressure may be treated with diet and medications, if it is recognized early on.
Home blood pressure monitoring can help people of all ages monitor their health and fitness — including even children and teenagers who have high blood pressure (an unfortunately developing trend.) And you can keep a lot better handle on your own high blood pressure levels as well as spot troubles easier since you can check your blood pressure at any time you want at home where you are the most comfortable. Home and workplace monitoring may also help whenever the exact reverse happens — your high blood pressure appears fine at the doctor’s office, yet is elevated in other places.
We’ve all seen the old manual method of checking blood pressure. A doctor or nurse, trained in the procedure, uses a stethoscope along with an inflatable arm cuff connected by a rubber tube to a gauge that records the pressure. Knowing exactly when to check the gauge by listening to the blood flowing in your arm, takes skill and training.
Luckily, today’s home blood pressure machines take all of the skilled work — and guesswork – out of the equation by doing all of the “heavy lifting” for us. All models differ slightly, but you basically, wrap the blood pressure monitor around your upper arm or wrist and turn on the machine. Automatically, the wristband will inflate to the proper pressure, and your systolic and diastolic pressures, as well as your pulse, will appear on the large, easy-to-read digital display. Then simply consult the included blood pressure charts to learn your optimal pressure.
Even if you are NOT currently diagnosed with high blood pressure, if you have prehypertension, or another condition that may contribute to high blood pressure, such as diabetes or kidney problems, home blood pressure monitoring may help your family doctor detect high blood pressure earlier than if you have only occasional blood pressure readings in the doctor’s office.