Easy to Understand Guide to Blood Pressure and BP Monitors by Comfort House
According to the Mayo Clinic,
“checking your blood pressure at home is an
important part of managing high blood
pressure.” In addition the American Heart Association projects that
one in three Americans has high blood pressure.
Comfort House has solutions
to provide you with the means of helping identify high blood pressure
and performing periodic home checks of blood pressure. Manual and
automatic arm monitors and wrist monitors are available in a range of prices to
fit every budget. Table top, wall mount, and readily portable wrist devices are
shown at: http://www.comforthouse.com/bloodpreshea.html
Blood pressure is measured as
a set of numbers. The first number, or systolic pressure, indicates the
hearts pumping pressure. The second number, or diastolic pressure,
is a measure of the pressure between heartbeats. Optimal pressure
for an adult would be a systolic pressure below120 millimeters of Hg with a
diastolic of less than 80 mm of Hg and would be expressed as
120/80. A systolic above 140 and diastolic above 90 are an
indication of hypertension or high blood pressure.
If you, or someone in your
family has a history of hypertension, it is important to monitor the condition
on a regular basis at home, not just at the time of your doctor office
visits. Home monitoring helps track your treatment, can cut down on the
number of doctor visits (and costs) you need to make, and will check if your
pressure is different outside the formality of a doctors office. Some
patients exhibit so called “white coat syndrome” where their pressure rises
greatly in the presence of a doctor or other medical professional which could
result in improper treatment.
Most blood pressure
monitoring equipment sold for the home today has digital readouts and come in
three main configurations: finger, wrist, and arm. The Mayo Clinc
recommends the arm monitor as the most all around accurate, with the wrist
monitor as a second choice. The finger monitor is not recommended
due to accuracy factors.
When contemplating purchase
of such a unit, the following factors should be taken into consideration:
· Do you want a regular dial
or digital readout?
· Do you want manual inflation and the use of a
stethoscope or a completely automatic unit?
· Are the numbers large enough
to easily read?
· Are the operating controls
large and plainly marked?
· Does the cuff fit comfortably on your arm or
wrist and is it easy to put on and take off?
· Does the monitor have a recording memory to
automatically keep track of your readings? Some monitors even have more
than one memory bank to keep track of the pressure of two or more individuals.
· Some monitors have an
irregular heartbeat detector built in.
· Some monitors have a USB cable to
download the data to your computer or to print out the results for
permanent record.
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| Shown here is an Omron blood pressue monitor that has the ability to log and track your progress via computer. |
Comfort House has a wide selection of monitors from Zewa, Omron, and LifeSource and there is sure to be one to fit your requirements.
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