Buying a Blood Pressure Monitor
Blood Pressure Monitors Have Come a Long Way
I've had high blood pressure for twenty years, and fortunately, it's been under control for the last ten. It's a serious condition--doctors refer to it as the "Silent Killer" because its symptoms are hard to detect. Over time it wears your body down and can contribute to heart attacks,strokes, congestive heart failure and other nasty diseases. I'll post a series of articles on my experience with hypertension, as it's technically known, but wanted to cover the basic home monitors for monitoring your blood pressure.
p>When I first was diagnosed with it (which occurred when I was being checked by a nurse at a blood donation station), I made an appointment to see a cardiologist the next week. You really don't need to see a specialist unless the blood pressure is very high and can't be lowered to an acceptable range. Most physicians are well schooled in treating high blood pressure and can diagnose and treat the problem quite adequately.
If your blood pressure is "borderline"--the first reading is the systolic pressure( when the heart pumps) is near 130 and the second or diastolic pressure (when the heart is between pumps) is over 80, most physicians will try to get you to exercise, lose ten pounds, and that should do the trick. My high blood pressure was above "borderline" range, so my doctor prescribed some medication in addition to the exercise and diet regimen.
The Need For a Home Monitor
Although I took the advice the doctor gave me as well as the medicine he prescribed, my busy working schedule did not leave me with sufficient time to go to the clinic to monitor my blood pressure frequently. I took it only when I was in the doctor's office and that really wasn't enough. So I decided to shop for a simple and effective blood pressure monitor.
Surprisingly, there are a number of models available in the market. There are the very simple blood pressure monitors that are manually operated. You might have seen these blood pressure monitors with some of the older doctors in your city. It looks like a bread box and opens up to reveal a U tube with mercury in it. A rubber hose is attached to a pad that is wound around your arm. An attached rubber ball is squeezed to increase and decrease the air pressure. And you can thus monitor your blood pressure. In clinical terms, such are known as aneroid blood pressure monitors. There is also a variation of the blood pressure monitor I saw, which uses a dial gauge to tell the pressure. Of course, such devices are not easy to use and operate and require a certain degree of skill. And being the lazy person that I am, I needed something that was far more convenient.
My next stop brought me in touch with the latest in the BP monitor world. While the earlier monitors have literally been banned from use in most hospitals, the varieties I saw in this store were the latest and the best. And almost all of them were what have come to be know and accepted as digital blood pressure monitors. There were portable wrist monitors, there were other monitors that came with in built printers, there were slightly more advanced monitors that compiled reports for ease of measurement and some even have memory chips to keep track of your latest fifty or hundred readings. The breadth and scope of these devices was astounding.
Are These Home Monitors Accurate?
I finally managed to pick a monitor that was small and compact, while being the latest in digital blood pressure monitoring systems. It also came with a detailed instruction booklet on how to take care of the monitor, how to ensure that it functions effectively and, best of all, a booklet on how to use it to get rid of my hypertension! The very helpful salesman also took the time to tell me about the possibilities of errors that digital monitors could have. Of course, he did so only when I had chosen and paid for it, but I m glad he did. For how else would I know that some of these monitors have a tendency to give erroneous readings if the body movements are vast and the heart rate is irregular. And using the same monitor on different arms could lead to different results! To be safe, you should bring your monitor into your doctor's office and check its accuracy by comparing the results on your monitor to the results he or she gets the monitor the doctor uses. That way, you'll be certain yours is accurate.
If you want what I consider to be a great bp monitor, here's my vote for the best
Also, for more information on high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, visit our sister site at Heart Wellness Store
Published by Natural Health Trip:
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Tags: best blood pressure monitor, blood pressure monitor, blood-pressure-monitors, congestive heart failure, heart attacks, High Blood Pressure, hypertension, monitoring your blood pressure, silent-killer, strokes
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