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Blood Pressure Monitors – Tips For Home Use
By Jack Douglas | October 16, 2009
Blood pressure monitors are becoming more user friendly so it is quite easy to check your blood pressure at home. If you have high blood pressure or other heart disease, tracking your blood pressure can be important to your health. Home blood pressure monitors are not very expensive, especially if you buy the manual rather than the digital kind.
Make sure you use the proper size cuff. If your arm is very large or very small, the standard size cuff normally supplied with blood pressure monitors may not give you an accurate reading. Choose an extra large cuff for big arms and a pediatric or extra small cuff for small arms.
It is also important that you take care of your monitor so that it doesn’t get damaged. One way to do so is to keep it in a protective case whenever you are not using it. Blood pressure monitors also shouldn’t be exposed to extreme heat so you can not just leave it in a car on hot days. If you do drop your monitor, then you have to make sure that no damage was done by checking its accuracy. The cuff and tubing also need to be examined for cracks or leaks before you use your monitor. These devices are also not waterproof and so take care that it does not get submerged.
There are some things you should make sure of before taking your blood pressure. The first being that a blood pressure reading must be taken while in a resting position, which means no movements, unless your doctor instructs you to do otherwise. It is also recommended to take it under the same conditions each time. This would mean you should avoid exercising, eating or smoking for a minimum of thirty minutes before you take your blood pressure.
When using digital blood pressure monitors, it is important to sit still while the unit is in operation. If you move around during testing, the results might not be accurate. Using a cell phone while taking your blood pressure might cause an inaccurate reading with digital blood pressure monitors also.
If you get an unusual reading on your blood pressure monitor you should wait a few minutes and try again. If you are using an arm cuff, remove it completely. When you are ready to take your blood pressure start from the very beginning by reapplying the cuff.
Occasionally, when you visit your doctor it would be wise to bring your blood pressure monitor with you, because it is your chance to check its accuracy by comparing it to the reading you have taken at the doctor. This helps ensure your monitor is working properly and you are getting the correct readings when you do it by yourself.
Even though blood pressure naturally rises and falls throughout the day, it is still important to be consistent when taking readings. Without consistency it is difficult to recognize patterns in the blood pressure readings. Therefore the testing must be done at the same time every day and in a relaxed condition, because things such as walking up stairs can affect the results of the test.
Some blood pressure monitors will store your results in memory but it doesn’t hurt to write your results in a blood pressure diary also. That way you can jot notes about your health at the time and if you were relaxed at the time of the reading. The more information you supply to your doctor, the better diagnosis and treatment he will be able to give to you.
For those who are looking for more details about omron automatice blood pressure monitor, check out this article for more info on manual blood pressure monitors.
Topics: High Blood Pressure | No Comments »