What If I Dont Have Equipment
You dont need a blood pressure cuff to take your resting heart rate, which is another measurement that helps indicate heart health. Digital monitors usually display both blood pressure and heart rate, but you can determine the latter on your own by checking your pulse by hand. Your pulse is how many times your heart pumps per minute.
First, locate the artery below the thumb on the inside of your wrist and place two fingers there. Count how many times you feel your heartbeat over a 15-second period, and then multiply your count by four to get your resting heart rate.
When youre checking pulse by hand, youre looking for more than just a number. Youre also checking for a regular rhythm, which indicates a strong pulse.
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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.
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What Do The Results Mean
Your results, also known as a blood pressure reading, will contain two numbers. The top or first number is the systolic pressure. The bottom or second number is the diastolic pressure. High blood pressure readings are also labeled by categories, ranging from normal to crisis. Your reading may show your blood pressure is:
| Blood Pressure Category | |
|---|---|
| and | 120 or higher |
If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your provider may recommend lifestyle changes and/or medicines to control your blood pressure. Your provider may also recommend that you regularly check your blood pressure at home with an automated blood pressure monitor. An at-home blood pressure monitor usually includes a blood pressure cuff and a digital device to record and display blood pressure readings.
Home monitoring is not a replacement for regular visits to your provider. But it can provide important information, such as whether treatment is working or your condition may have worsened. Also, home monitoring may make the test less stressful. Many people get nervous about getting their blood pressure taken at a provider’s office. This is called “white coat syndrome.” It can cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, making the results less accurate. For more information about home monitoring of blood pressure, talk to your provider.
What Equipment Do I Need To Measure My Blood Pressure At Home
To measure your blood pressure at home, you can use either an aneroid monitor or digital monitor. Choose the type of monitor that best meets your needs. Look at the following features when you select a monitor.
- Size: The right cuff size is very important. The cuff size you need is based on the size of your arm. You can ask the doctor, nurse, orpharmacist to help you. Blood pressure readings can be wrong if your cuff is the wrong size.
- Price: Cost may be a key factor. Home blood pressure units vary in price. You may want to shop around to find the best deal. Keep in mind that pricey units may not be the best or most accurate.
- Display: The numbers on the monitor should be easy for you to read.
- Sound: You must be able to hear your heartbeat through the stethoscope.
Tests show that finger and wrist devices do not always provide correct measurements. These devices are sensitive to placement and body temperature. They also are expensive and can cost more than $100.
Aneroid monitor
The aneroid monitor manually checks your blood pressure. It has a gauge that you read by looking at a pointer on the dial. The cuff goes around your upper arm and you squeeze a rubber bulb to inflate it by hand.
Digital monitor
Inflation of the cuff is either automatic or manual, depending on the model. Deflation is automatic. Digital monitors are good for hearing-impaired patients, since there is no need to listen to your heartbeat through the stethoscope.
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How To Take Blood Pressure Or How To Measure Blood Pressure
How to take blood pressure at home, automatically, manually and accurately
How to measure blood pressure is amongst things in life that require precision for best results. There are many factors that affect how to take blood pressure in the best possible way and the quality of the result thereof. These factors include the type of monitor used in terms of the brand and whether it’s properly calibrated and approved amongst other things.
When shopping for a blood pressure monitor in the first place, it is of paramount importance to go for reputable brands because these will influence how you will take blood pressure with accuracy. Home blood pressure monitoring brands such as the Omron blood pressure monitor, Microlife blood pressure monitor, Relion blood pressure monitor and Lifesource blood pressure monitor have established names on the blood pressure market with leading technologies such as those able to detect irregular heart beat and morning hypertension
Once everything is in place, however, there are specific keys that should be followed directing how to take blood pressure successfully with the best possible results. The first thing you must do is to establish your baseline measurement. Everything that shows progress or facilitates comparison has something to be measured against.
1. Take blood pressure at the same time each day
2. Sit in the chair or in the same position.
3. Use correct cuff size.
How to measure blood pressure manually
Measuring Your Blood Pressure
Don’t Miss: How To Calibrate Home Blood Pressure Monitor
What Is Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure exerted by the blood as it flows through the arteries. It is measured in millimetres of mercury .
The purpose of taking a blood pressure measurement may be to:
Blood pressure measurements take into account:
- Systolic measurements and
- Diastolic measurements .
A normal systolic range for an adult is 100-140mmHg and a normal diastolic is 60-89mmHg.
Influencing factors include but are not limited to anxiety, cardiac output, vascular resistance, blood volume and blood viscosity, age, exercise, stress, ethnicity, gender, medications, body weight, diurnal variations, disease processes, hypervolaemia and hypovolemia.
Blood Pressure Monitoring At Home
Many people monitor their blood pressure at home. They often do this to manage or treat a certain health condition. If you monitor your blood pressure at home, keep a record, or log, of the measurements. The record shows your doctor how your blood pressure changes throughout the day. If you take medicines to control your blood pressure, it will help document if they are working. Measuring your blood pressure at home is a good way to take part in managing your health.
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Tips For Getting An Accurate Blood Pressure Reading
To accurately monitor your blood pressure over time, you shouldnt just plop down in a chair whenever to do a reading. Instead, you should implement some simple practices that help ensure accuracy.
1. Take your blood pressure at the same time of day for every new recording.
2. Avoid caffeine and alcohol at least 30 minutes prior to your reading.
3. Avoid exercise within 30 minutes of taking your blood pressure.
4. Sit up straight and be still throughout the measurement.
5. Take multiple measurements and record all of the results with the date and time.
6. Dont wear the blood pressure cuff over clothes.
Your blood pressure should be easy to read on a digital monitor, like this one.
Wrap Cuff Around Partner’s Arm
- Tuck the end of the cuff through the metal loop and slide onto your partners arm. Using the Velcro on the cuff, secure the cuff roughly one half inch above the bend of the elbow.
- The cuff will have a line or arrow marked on it so that it can be properly placed around the arm.
- Make sure the line or arrow lines up with the brachial artery in the inner elbow. The pulse felt in step one gives the general position of the brachial artery.
- The cuff should fit snugly so that the skin is not pinched.
- It should be possible to fit two fingertips under the cuff, but not the entirety of the fingers.
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Stride Bp A New International Expert Organisation Will Help You Chose The Right Home Blood Pressure Monitor For You
High blood pressure or hypertension, is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Left untreated it can cause you to have a heart attack or debilitating stroke, it can also increase your risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimers disease in later life.
Therefore, it is vital that if you suffer from high blood pressure and are thinking of purchasing a BP monitor to measure your blood pressure at home, that you select the right device.
With so many different devices available it can be confusing to know which is the best home BP monitor for you. The good news is that an international non-profit organization STRIDE-BPhas been recently established with the mission to improve the accuracy of BP measurement and the diagnosis of high blood pressure.
Check out the link to their website here, which provides a list of recommended and tested devices approved for home use.
Please remember that your home monitor will need to be re-calibrated every one to two years, please check the manufacturer guidelines for information on this.
High blood pressure or hypertension, is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke
A healthy blood pressure
Two numbers are used to measure the level of your blood pressure. One number records blood pressure when the pressure is at its highest i.e. as the heart muscle squeezes the blood out of your heart this is called systolic pressure.
How to measure your blood pressure at home
How It Works: Diastolic
Thats the top reading. But Becker and others are also listening for something else.
As the blood starts to run off, it makes a tapping sound, a dull tapping sound and the blood disappears, says Ferdinand.
Some describe it as a swooshing sound that then fades out.
And when that sound disappears, thats the diastolic or the lower blood pressure, he says.
When everything goes silent again, when your heart is at rest in between beats, thats the diastolic pressure. Its the lower reading, or the 80, if your blood pressure is 120 over 80.
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Misdiagnosis Of High Or Low Blood Pressure
First Ill explain how taking your pressure only on one wrist can miss a diagnosis of high blood pressure. Lets say you only check the left wrist and your readings are always 119/79. Unknown to you, the pressure in your right wrist is 131/83 which indicates your blood pressure is high 4.
Now in the same scenario lets say the pressure in your right wrist is 107/69. Since youre only checking the left wrist you wouldnt know the pressure in the other wrist is lower. While 107/69 is not considered low pressure, it wouldnt warn you of a potential pattern towards low blood pressure.
Failure to measure and record your measurements in both arms may help prevent a diagnosis of low or high blood pressure. At your next physician visit, the doctor would only be given part of your actual blood pressure patterns and recordings and not the complete picture.
Heres an interesting story. A 69 year-old woman was admitted into the hospital for surgery. Different nurses measured her pressure at different times and each nurse used a different arm. Her second reading was so much lower, they assumed her blood pressure dropped and thought her body was reacting to an infection. Little did they know at the time, her pressure never lowered and remained consistent. The pressure was lower in one arm and higher in the other.
Second Step: Measure Blood Pressure
Now, you can start to measure blood pressure. Place the bell of the cleansed stethoscope over the brachial artery using a light touch and complete seal. Inflate the cuff to the maximum pressure inflation number . Open the valve slightly. Deflate the cuff slowly and evenly at about 2 mm Hg per second. See Film Clip 5.3 which focuses on the speed of the needle when deflating the blood pressure cuff.
Note the points at which you hear the first appearance of Korotkoff sounds and the point at which the Korotkoff sounds go silent . These sounds are called Korotkoff sounds and vary in quality from tapping, swooshing, muffled sounds, and silence. The pressure at which the first Korotkoff sound is noted signifies the systolic pressure, while the pressure at which the Korotkoff sounds are no longer heard marks the diastolic pressure. See Audio Clip 5.1 to listen to Korotkoff sounds and noting systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Alternatively, if viewing textbook as a pdf, use this link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/lPlYNt8cVnI?rel=0
Film clip 5.3: Deflation rate of sphygmomanometer
Alternatively, if viewing textbook as a pdf, use this link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/QbGPzUluT5c?rel=0
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How To Take Orthostatic Blood Pressure
Orthostatic hypotension is a medical term for the decrease in systolic and diastolic pressure withing three minutes of the pactient standing as compared with blood pressure taken while sitted. For taking orthistatic blood pressure using a cuff you will have to follow the steps ennuerated above, but also repeat the reading after standing 3 minutes. Dont forget about the pulse rate measurements too.
It is also important to:
- Take your blood pressure twice a day first in the morning, before breakfast but never right after you wake up and then in the evening. Compare the measurements to see how your blood pressure fluctuates after a day of work.
- Always record you readings and inform your doctor on the values you get. From time to time pay his or her a visit and check your measurements against theirs.
Learn that there are various ways to check your blood pressure at home. Now that you have discovered the essential steps concerning how to take blood pressure with cuff correctly, lets take a look at less popular or even unefficient ways to do it.
- How to take blood pressure with fingers
Unlike the popular belief that blood pressure can be determined by using your fingers, such measurement is totally inneffectual. On the other hand, you can use your fingers to check your pulse. Place your first and second fingertips on your arteries and as soon as you have felt your pulse begin counting the beats for 60 seconds.
- How to take blood pressure on leg
S On How To Take A Blood Pressure Manually
1. Perform hand hygiene and gather supplies
- Supplies needed: stethoscope and blood pressure cuff with a sphygmomanometer
- Tip: always use the right size cuff
2. Have the patient sitting or lying down with the arm at heart level. Turn the arm outward with the palm up. Be sure the legs are uncrossed.
- Find the brachial artery:
- This is the most common site for checking the blood pressure and is a major artery in the upper arm that divides into the radial and ulnar artery.
- To find this artery, extend the arm and have the palm facing upward. The pulse point is found near the top of the cubital fossa, which is a triangular area that is in front of the elbow.
3. Place and secure the blood pressure cuff on the patients upper arm. Place it about 2 inches above the elbow. In addition, make sure the arrow on the blood pressure cuff is lined up with the brachial artery. Dont place the blood pressure cuff over clothes or the gown.
4. First, we will estimate the systolic pressure by palpating the brachial artery and inflating the cuff to the point where the pulse disappears. Note that number on the gauge when you no longer feel the brachial artery. Then deflate the cuff and wait 30 to 60 seconds.
5. Place your stethoscope in your ears, palpate the brachial artery again, and place the bell of the stethoscope lightly on the brachial pulse site .
7. Deflate the cuff slowly with the valve .
10. Open the valve completely and let the air leave.
11. Remove the cuff.
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