How To Check Your Blood Pressure At Home

Keep A Blood Pressure Diary

Keep a blood pressure diary. Your records may help explain changes in your blood pressure readings and help your doctor make sure you get the right treatment.

Everyone’s blood pressure changes from day to day and even from minute to minute sometimes. Blood pressure tends to be higher in the morning and lower at night. Stress, smoking, eating, exercise, cold, pain, noise, medicines, and even talking can affect it.

Record your blood pressure numbers with the date and time. You might use a home blood pressure log or a spreadsheet on your computer. Your monitor might have a feature that will record your numbers for you. Some monitors can transfer this information to your computer.

Also record your daily activities, such as the time you take medicine or if you feel upset or feel stressed.

How Can I Check My Blood Pressure At Home A Step

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Many people with high blood pressure check their own blood pressure at home. However, you dont need to have a high blood pressure diagnosis to do so yourself.

Your blood pressure is the amount of force placed on the walls of your blood vessels as your heart pumps blood. What you learn from taking your blood pressure can improve your lifestyle and may prevent a future, life-changing diagnosis.

Other Options For Checking Your Blood Pressure At Home

Some mobile apps promise to check your blood pressure. Although they may provide inaccurate data, they can help you identify patterns in your blood pressure and help you decide whether to do more detailed monitoring.

Some examples of blood-pressure monitoring apps are as follows:

• Family Lite for iPhone users

• Blood pressure monitor for Android users

• Blood pressure companion for iPhone users

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S To Measure Your Blood Pressure At Home

Checking your Blood Pressure at home is a quick, easy, and inexpensive process, despite not being a replacement for regular check-ups by your doctor. You can follow these steps to gauge your Blood Pressure correctly and get reliable readings.

Before taking your Blood Pressure, you should:

• Find a quiet place so that you can listen to your heartbeat

• Don’t eat, drink or smoke within 30 minutes of the reading

• Empty your bladder

• Dress loosely, preferably in a short-sleeved t-shirt so that you can easily band the cuff around your arm

• Rest for 5 to 10 minutes and remain silent.

• Sit on a chair in a comfortable position, ensuring your feet are flat on the ground and your back and arm are well supported.

• Place your left forearm flat on a table or desk at the level of the heart.

• Wrap the Blood Pressure cuff around your bare arm, with its bottom edge placed 1 inch above the crease of your elbow. Make sure it fits snugly without being too tight or loose.

When taking your Blood Pressure, choose from the following options that best meets your needs.

You’ve to record your measurements as systolic over diastolic. For instance, 120/80. Remember, manually measuring Blood Pressure requires training and precision. Thus, it would be best to ask a friend or family member to help you.

Whats Considered A Normal Or Healthy Blood Pressure Range

Blood pressure is a very individualized vital sign, which means it can be very different for each person. Some people have naturally low blood pressure all the time, while others may run on the higher side.

In general, a normal blood pressure is considered anything less than 120/80 mm Hg. Your own personal blood pressure will depend on your:

Hypertensive crisis

higher than 180

higher than 120

When determining the category you fall into, its important to remember that both your systolic and diastolic numbers need to be in the normal range for your blood pressure to be considered normal.

If one number falls into one of the other categories, your blood pressure is considered to be in that category. For example, if your blood pressure is 115/92, your blood pressure would be considered high blood pressure stage 2.

Important

If your blood pressure ever goes over 180 systolic or over 120 diastolic after a repeat reading, seek emergency medical care right away.

Monitoring your blood pressure can help you and your doctor identify any issues early on. If treatment is needed, its better to start it early before damage has occurred in your arteries.

Treatment may involve lifestyle changes, such as:

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What Is Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure is the amount of pressure your blood exerts on the walls of the arteries when your heart pumps. It is usually measured in millimetres of mercury, mmHg, with the readings consisting of two numbers, usually shown as one on top of the other.

• Systolic Blood Pressure: It is the first and usually the upper limit of the value that depicts how much pressure is exerted when your heart contracts.

• Diastolic Blood Pressure: It is the second number and the lower limit of the measurement that represents the amount of pressure exerted by the blood when the heart relaxes between two beats.

Buy The Right Blood Pressure Monitoring Device

You can either use a manual or digital blood pressure monitor. Despite the option you choose, you need to find a device best suited for your needs.

Here are the features you should consider when buying your monitor:

Size

Using a blood pressure monitoring device with the wrong cuff size can record inaccurate blood pressure readings. It is crucial, therefore, that your blood pressure monitoring device has the right cuff size.

Look for a device that fits your arm. Your doctor can help you choose a device with the right cuff size.

Price

The cost of your blood pressure monitoring device also plays a significant role in your decision. You need a blood pressure device that fits your budget. You dont necessarily need to buy an expensive one since not all pricey devices are more accurate.

Display

Look for a device with a monitor that quickly reads your measurement readings. Finger and wrist blood pressure devices are not the best options. They are usually sensitive to body temperature and dont guarantee accurate results.

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At Home With A Monitor

Home monitoring can be a great way to keep track of your blood pressure on a daily basis.

With home monitoring, you can check your blood pressure throughout the day and at times that are convenient for you. It can help you see how your blood pressure changes throughout the day and help you get a sense of your average blood pressure range.

However, youll need to purchase a blood pressure monitor to do this. Youll also need to learn how to use it and how to record accurate readings.

Its not complicated to learn the basics of many home monitors, but it can still be easy to make a mistake.

What Does The Blood Pressure Reading Mean

Different people have slightly different Blood Pressures. What you consider low or high may be normal for someone else. This is because a person’s Blood Pressure is often based on their:

Is there any Blood Pressure value that warrants emergency hospital admission?

Patients with Hypertension usually have no symptoms, even with very High Blood Pressure values. But if the Blood Pressure reaches the number of 200/120 mmHg, accompanied by pulmonary oedema, heart attack, stroke, etc.), an appointment with their primary care doctor becomes the need of the hour to establish the appropriate treatment and follow-up.

Do I have to rest before taking my Blood Pressure?

Before measuring the Blood Pressure, it is advised to sit down and rest for at least 5 minutes. In addition, you should avoid alcohol, caffeine, and smoking 30 minutes before the measurement.

How to choose the right Blood Pressure monitor?

For monitoring your Blood Pressure at home, you will need a Blood Pressure monitor. However, choosing a home Blood Pressure monitor can be confusing since many options are available. Yet, the most important thing when you buy an automated digital machine is that it must produce precise results, is simple to use, well-calibrated, and largely fits within your budget.

References

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How To Accurately Measure Blood Pressure At Home

Please note: This article was published more than two years ago, so some information may be outdated. If you have questions about your health, always contact a health care professional.

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High blood pressure is one of the top risk factors for heart attack and stroke. It’s also common among people who develop severe COVID-19 symptoms.

So, with more people at home practicing social distancing and with fewer chances to check blood pressure at public pharmacy machines or doctor visits, it’s more important than ever to know how to do it at home.

How do I select a home blood pressure monitor?

“The readings you get at home are really important, because they reflect the pressure your heart is facing on a day-to-day basis,” said Dr. Michael Hochman, a doctor of internal medicine at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.

A list of validated home monitors, the first in the United States and commissioned to meet the American Medical Association’s criteria, is available at validateBP.org. The Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, the British Hypertension Society and the European Society of Hypertension also certify devices.

The device should measure blood pressure on the upper arm, which produce a more reliable result than those that measure from the wrist.

Many devices are automated. Simply put on the cuff and press a button. The results are displayed digitally.

Your health care provider should check the device about once a year to ensure its accuracy.

How To Check High Blood Pressure At Home

Many people monitor their blood pressure at home to manage this condition effectively.

Remember, its difficult to identify whether you have high blood pressure unless it is already severe. Therefore, you can only determine whether you have high blood pressure if you measure it regularly.

Heres what you can do to monitor your blood pressure at home.

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Home Monitoring And Blood Pressure Goals

Home blood pressure monitoring can help guide your treatment by showing whether your medicines are working or if you need to take a different approach. A study published in March 2013 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes found that people who monitored their blood pressure at home were more likely to reach their blood pressure goals than those who were monitored only by their doctor.

Anyone who has high blood pressure, or is at risk for it, can benefit from home blood pressure monitoring, especially women with diabetes or kidney disease. You might also want to consider taking your blood pressure at home if your levels tend to fluctuate. Getting an accurate accounting of the variations will help your doctor better treat your blood pressure.

Women with symptoms such as dizziness or headaches can also take regular readings “to see if their symptoms correlate to their blood pressure,” Dr. Zusman says.

Some conditions can make it harder to take your own blood pressureparticularly if you have an irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation. If this is uncontrolled, you may not be able to get an accurate reading with a home blood pressure monitor. Even if your arrhythmia is controlled, you may need to take your blood pressure several times in a row for accuracy.

If you’re interested in home blood pressure monitoring, here’s how to get started.

Use An Aneroid Or Manual Monitor

An aneroid or manual monitor uses a gauge read by looking at a pointer on its dial. All you need to do is wrap the cuff around your arm, squeeze the rubber bulb, and inflate it by hand.

An aneroid monitor sells at about $20 to $40. The cuff has an in-built stethoscope, so you dont need to buy one. Its also easy to cuff the unit on your arm. Its portable, making it a suitable device for monitoring blood pressure at home or anywhere else.

There are a few disadvantages associated with this device. For instance, this device is complex, and you can easily record inaccurate data if youre not familiar with its usage.

Using an aneroid or manual monitor can also be challenging if you dont have a metal ring to tighten the cuff around your arm or if you have a hearing impairment. Finally, the rubber bulb used to inflate the cuff may be hard to squeeze for some people.

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What Happens During A Blood Pressure Test

A blood pressure test includes the following steps:

• You will sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
• You will rest your arm on a table or other surface, so your arm is level with your heart. You may be asked to roll up your sleeve.
• Your provider will wrap a blood pressure cuff around your arm. A blood pressure cuff is a strap-like device. It should fit snugly around your upper arm, with the bottom edge placed just above your elbow.
• Your provider will inflate the blood pressure cuff using a small hand pump or by pressing a button on an automated device.
• Your provider will measure the pressure manually or with an automated device.
• If manually, he or she will place a stethoscope over the major artery in your upper arm to listen to the blood flow and pulse as the cuff inflates and deflates.
• If using an automated device, the blood pressure cuff automatically inflates, deflates, and measures pressure.

As the blood pressure cuff inflates, you’ll feel it tighten around your arm.

Your provider will then open a valve on the cuff to slowly release air from it. As the cuff deflates, blood pressure will fall.

As the pressure falls, a measurement is taken when the sound of blood pulsing is first heard. This is the systolic pressure.

As the air continues to be let out, the blood pulsing sound will start to go away. When it completely stops, another measurement is taken. This is the diastolic pressure.

This test only takes about one minute to complete.

Buying And Maintaining A Monitor

When you first get a blood pressure device, check its accuracy. Do this by comparing its readings with those you get at the doctor’s office. Ask your doctor or nurse to watch you use your device to make sure that you are doing it right and that it works right. It’s a good idea to have your device checked every year at the doctor’s office.

The size of the blood pressure cuff and where you place it can greatly affect how accurate your device is. If the cuff is too small or too large, the results won’t be right. You may have to measure your arm and choose a monitor that comes in the right size.

A monitor that measures blood pressure in your arm is recommended for most people. Blood pressure monitors used on the wrist aren’t as reliable as those that use arm cuffs. Wrist monitors should be used only by people who can’t use arm cuffs for physical reasons. And devices that use finger monitors aren’t recommended at all.footnote 1

Check your blood pressure cuff often. Make sure all of the parts of your monitor are in good condition. Even a small hole or crack in the tubing can lead to inaccurate results.

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How Do I Check My Blood Pressure At Home

• Avoid exercise, caffeine, nicotine, and other stimulants 30 minutes before checking your blood pressure.

• Empty your bladder.

• Rest quietly and avoid talking or texting for at least five minutes before taking your blood pressure and during the measurement.

• Wrap the cuff snugly on your bare arm. The instructions will tell you how to line it up. If you are wearing a tight shirt, take your arm out of the sleeve. Your arm should rest on a flat surface with your upper arm at the level of your heart.

• Sit with your back supported, legs uncrossed, and feet flat on the ground as shown in the photo.

Welcome To Our Home Monitoring Resource Hub

Here you can find resources for home monitoring, see our simple steps to get an accurate reading and make the most out of home monitoring.

Plus, read more about .

The first step to managing your blood pressure is to Know Your Numbers! Watch our video to see how to measure your blood pressure at home and use our tips and resources below to check your own blood pressure at home.

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Using A Manual Blood Pressure Monitor

If you’re not familiar with using a stethoscope, you may want to get help from someone who is. The accuracy of a blood pressure recording depends on putting the stethoscope in just the right place.

Sit with your arm slightly bent and resting comfortably on a table so that your upper arm is on the same level as your heart.

Wrap the blood pressure cuff around your bare upper arm. The lower edge of the cuff should be about 2.5 cm above the bend of your elbow.

Close the valve on the rubber inflating bulb. Squeeze the bulb rapidly with your opposite hand to inflate the cuff. Keep squeezing until the dial or column of mercury reads about 30 mm Hg higher than your usual systolic pressure. The pressure in the cuff will temporarily stop all blood flow in your arm.

Put the stethoscope over the large artery slightly above the inside of your elbow. You can find this artery by feeling for its pulse with the fingers of your other hand. If you are using a cuff with a built-in stethoscope, be sure the part of the cuff with the stethoscope is over the artery. Don’t let the stethoscope rub on the cuff or your clothing. This may cause noises that make your pulse hard to hear.

Open the valve on the bulb just slightly. The numbers on the pressure dial or mercury tube should fall graduallyâabout 2 to 3 mm Hg per second. Some devices automatically control the fall at this rate.