Blood Pressure Monitoring - Information and Advice about Blood Pressure.

Understanding Your Blood Pressure

Find out how your blood pressure directly affects your health and why careful measuring with the right equipment is essential for accurate readings.

High Blood Pressure affects millions of people in the UK increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack. Blood pressure problems have no symptoms.  The only way for you to know if you have low, normal or high blood pressure is to have it measured properly using an accurate blood pressure monitor.

A recent study showed that people who measure their blood pressure at home have better control of their condition. The study found that blood pressure was lower in people who had been regularly checking their blood pressure at home.

The British Hypertension Society produce an up to date list of blood pressure monitors suitable for both clinical and home users which have been tested and approved. Find out more about these machines and how to use them properly to take accurate blood pressure readings.

You can buy clinically approved monitors online from suppliers of healthcare equipment for both medical professionals and home users.

To understand more about what blood pressure is, what's normal and why it is important to reduce high blood pressure read the full information on the high blood pressure page.  This site also contains information about low blood pressure.

Blood pressure monitoring needs to give accurate readings if it is to be worthwhile.  You may have been advised to measure your blood pressure at home in order to get a more accurate record of your readings or just want to keep a check on your own blood pressure. On this site you can access a comprehensive fact sheet about how to measure blood pressure.

Blood pressure is increasingly measured in the surgery using an automatic blood pressure monitor and these can also be used in the convenience and comfort of your home. For ease of use these machines can be fully automatic and measure blood pressure correctly on the upper arm at heart level. The readings are given on a digital display and can be stored in the monitor's memory or printed out.

Check your readings against this blood pressure chart and find out more about what the numbers mean.

It is worth noting that electronic blood pressure measuring devices have the following advantages:

• Electronic blood pressure measuring devices are becoming the norm in hospitals and surgeries since mercury used in old syphgmanometers is being phased out.
• Most of these are now accurate enough for routine clinical use and are relatively inexpensive.
• Automatic machines don't require the use of a stethoscope to hear when the pulse stops and begins to determine the two readings (systolic and diastolic pressure).
• They eliminate human error in blood pressure measurement.

You can buy top models of blood pressure monitors from online medical supply shops such as Medisave. They offer the latest approved models from leading brands such as Omron including the latest omron m10-IT and the best selling Omron M6 Comfort blood pressure monitor, A&D and Microlife at heavily discounted online prices