How to Read Your Own Blood Pressure
41Here are some top tips for taking your own blood pressure readings, including why you should monitor your own blood pressure at home and why you should invest in a high-end monitor.
These are your AARP
Top Tips for taking your own
blood pressure readings.
Doctors recommend that you
monitor your blood pressure
at home.
Experts say this can be key
to getting a more accurate
reading and helping to keep your
blood pressure under control.
Here are six tips for doing it
right.
Get a good kit.
Expect to pay about $100
for a monitor.
Skip the finger and wrist
monitors — they are not as
accurate — and do not trust
a phone app with this.
Make sure the cuff fits your
arm.
Test for accuracy.
Bring your monitor to your next
doctor's appointment.
And compare it against theirs.
Your systolic readings should
be within 10 mm Hg, or
millimeters of mercury, of your
doctor's.
Have the nurse watch you use it
to make sure you are
doing it correctly.
Stay silent, still and chill.
Don't smoke, exercise or have
caffeine within 30 minutes
before taking a measurement.
Relax quietly for five minutes
before the test.
For the readings, sit with your
feet flat on the floor.
Strap in.
It's best if your arm is bare.
Strap the cuff right above your
elbow.
Be consistent.
The American Heart Association
says you should test twice
a day — when you wake up and just
before dinner.
Each time, take two or three readings,
one minute apart.
When you record, don't cheat.
It does you no good if you write
down numbers you want
rather than what you measure.
Better yet, get a monitor that
transmits results right to your
phone, and then you can send
them straight to your doctor.
For more tips to stay fit visit http://www.aarp.org/health.