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Tips for Accurate Use of Your Home Blood Pressure Monitor

You have bought your blood pressure monitor for home use. Great! Everybody needs one, because high blood pressure is a life-threatening health problem. Untreated high blood pressure could easily lead to serious impairment of health, which is why your decision to monitor your blood pressure is a wise step to take.

Now that you have a home blood pressure monitor, it's important, too, that a you understand how to use it to ensure you get accurate readings. Hopefully, you bought a good quality blood pressure monitor like the Omron range, which means that if you use it properly, you will get accurate and reliable reliable readings. Certainly, you need to get down to practicing the use of the monitor - you have to try it out! But before you do, let's guide you with some vital tips. So, here are our tips for accurate use of your blood pressure monitor:

• Be sure that the arm (or wrist) cuff of your blood pressure monitor is the proper size for you. The wrong size (say, too tight), could affect your results.
• Crosscheck with your doctor or health officer that the monitor is reading properly. This will be done by comparing its results with results from the unit at the clinic (provided the later is also accurate).
• Spend some time to read the operations manual supplied by the manufacturer, paying good attention to any guides relating to proper use of their product.
• Don't measure your blood pressure immediately after exercising, bathing or eating. Also, it's not recommended to check your blood pressure shortly after taking caffeine, alcohol or tobacco. In each case, a wait of at least 30 minutes is recommended.
• Be relaxed for a while before you measure your blood pressure. Sitting, relaxed, for at least 5 minutes will be appropriate. If you need to empty your bladder, its better to do so before the measurement, as the pressure from a full bladder can slightly raise your blood pressure.
• Sit properly to measure your blood pressure: on a chair, in an upright position, with back supported by the chair's backrest.
• It's best to measure on your left arm.
• Movement or talking while measuring your blood pressure can affect the result. You should refrain from both. Be calm, steady and relaxed.
• Your arm should be rested on a platform, preferably a table that permits the arm to be held at about the level of the heart.
• Be sure that the cuff is not worn over your clothing. it should be worn directly on your skin, meaning that if you are wearing a long-sleeved shirt, the sleeve should be rolled up. There again, be sure that the rolled-up sleeve does not grip firmly on the arm, otherwise, removing the shirt will be a better option, unless you can loosen the grip of the rolled-up sleeve.
• You need to take more than one reading at a time, allowing an interval of, say, three to five minutes (at the worst, a minute), to compare the results. It also good to measure your BP up to twice each day, one in the morning and another in the evening.
• Learn to interpret the readings as to what they say about your blood pressure. This is important because reading your blood pressure is no use if it doesn't facilitate taking appropriate action when that is necessary. You should know when the readings indicate that the blood pressure is high, as that will necessitate seeing your doctor quickly. To learn more about blood pressure readings and their interpretation, check this article.

Checking your blood pressure regularly will help protect and preserve life. This actually applies to every member of your household. For readings to be meaningful and serve their purpose, they need to be properly taken. The tips offered here will help you with accurate measurement of your blood pressure, using your home blood pressure monitor.

As a first step towards this, it's even more important to ensure you purchase a reliable blood pressure monitor that can actually deliver accurate measurement. The World Hypertension League, a major global body for the control of high blood pressure, affiliated to the UN, recommends that you go for clinically validated blood pressure monitors. Clinical validation is done by authoritative independent hypertension societies, like the British hypertension Society, the European Society for Hypertension, the German Hypertension Society, etc. Based on clinical studies on the performance of specific blood pressure monitors, products that perform satisfactorily get certified as clinically validated. This is virtually a stamp of approval on the performance, not necessarily of the brand of blood pressure monitor, but of that particular model.

In effect, not every brand of blood pressure monitor has such validation. For a particular manufacturer, it may be only specific models of their monitors that have received validation. Your responsibility to yourself is to crosscheck and confirm that the BP monitor you are considering to buy is clinically validated by a reputable body. We however make that easier for you, in our store, by offering only clinically validated Omron and Visomat blood pressure monitors. We also provide a link to a list you can refer to, for more information.