Checking Your Blood Pressure?

Posted by proforma on February 25, 2010  |  No Comments

Whether you already have high blood pressure or just want to monitor for it, you should know some basics about home monitoring devices or drugstore monitoring machines. Cardiologist Samuel W. Casscells, the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the UT Medical School, offers the following advice in the recent issue of Health Leader.

Checking your own pressure at home with a monitor can give you a reliable read, but he advises you bring the monitor to your next doctor’s visit and ask the staff to check it against their monitor. If the two align, you’re in good shape to test at home.

If you use monitors in drugstores, malls, grocery stores, he advises the following:

• Sit in the waiting chair for a few moments before you put your arm in the cuff, as your pressure may have a higher reading from walking or pushing a shopping cart.
• Machines in public areas may not be serviced and recalibrated regularly, so take two readings several minutes apart. If they are wildly different, the machine may need calibration.
• The monitor—especially the digital variety—is very sensitive, so you must remain completely still while you are checking your pressure. Avoid moving, sneezing, laughing or talking, or your reading will register higher.

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