Finding The Right Home Blood Pressure Monitor
If you want to check your blood pressure at home, you will need a blood pressure monitor. These monitors are not necessarily very expensive but are within the budget of most households. There are basically two sorts of home monitor: aneroid and digital.
The aneroid monitor has a dial-type gauge and you read off your blood pressure figures from that. It also has a cuff, which you wrap about your arm and which you pump up with a rubber bulb. The digital monitors also use a cuff, but it can be manually or automatically inflated. The results are read from a small screen. The choice is yours, but most individuals prefer the automatic digital monitor.
An aneroid home monitor is portable and necessitates neither batteries nor electricity and is somewhat cheaper than the digital version. It also has a stethoscope built into the cuff for easy monitoring. A difficulty could arise in raucous surroundings or if the user is hard of hearing. Someone with arthritic hands or fingers might have problems squeezing the bulb as well.
Digital monitors are more expensive, yet they are more well-liked as well despite that, because they can be entirely automatic. The screen is also easier to read and some units come with a small printer to create a physical record of your readings. Other digital home monitors have a memory.
The one I use has three memories of thirty slots each so that you can compare records over a month. Having three memories means that you can monitor and record readings for three separate people or three separate time slots for one person over the period of a month. If you choose three time slots they could be morning, noon and night, as blood pressures vary during the day.
Whichever type of monitor you decide on, make certain that the cuff is the right size for you. Be especially cautious if you have very substantial or very thin arms. Check the age range for the monitor too. Mine says for use only on people more than 18 years, yet does not say why.
If electricity or batteries is ever likely to become a difficulty, then the automatic digital home monitor may not be for you, although you may be able to rig it up to photovoltaic cells to exploit the sun’s rays.
Neither of these units are difficult to use, if you know how, so be sure that the instruction book does not seem as if it was translated by machine. It is of course vital to know how to take precise readings and how to understand them. In order to check the accuracy of your device it is worth taking it with on your next visit to your GP.
You can check your readings against those of his sphygmomanometer, which is thought of as the gold standard of blood monitoring devices. Your GP will also be able to tell you what your systolic and diastolic pressures ought to be.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.