How to buy a blood pressure monitor

Control your blood pressure and live a long, happy life

Trying to buy a BP monitor for use at home can seem bewildering. There are a wide range of machines available - all of them claiming to have advantages over each other. So - how do you choose and buy a BP monitor?

Do I need to buy a machine to monitor my blood pressure at home?

This is really the first question that you need to ask yourself. Do you really need to monitor your BP at home on a regular basis or is it enough to have your doctor monitor it every once in a while? The evidence is now pretty convincing that if your doctor checks your levels then your reading is likely to be quite a bit higher than if you check it yourself at home. This rise in BP when faced with a doctor is sometimes called white coat hypertension - hypertension is just another name for high blood pressure.

Some doctors or hospitals make use of a sophisticated monitor which can record a whole series of BP readings in a 24 hour period - called twenty four hour ambulatory monitoring. Recording levels this way gives a very clear picture of what your true level is doing but it may not always be required unless your BP is proving very hard to control.

In general - provided you can afford to buy a monitor, and providing you don't get too obsessive about small variations in the readings, then choosing to buy a home BP monitor is a good idea. You can quickly learn to build up a chart of your own readings from the monitor printouts.

Create a blood pressure chart
It's easy to create your own BP monitor chart for use at home. The simplest way is just to keep a sheet of paper with two columns - one for the higher (or systolic) reading and the other for the lower (or diastolic) reading. You or your doctor will easily spot any patterns or trends.

Alternatively you can buy a book with graph paper instead or blank or lined paper and use it to create your chart. Draw an axis up the left side with numbers starting at 50 and going up in units of ten up to about 220. Along the bottom mark off spaces to insert a date. For each date you simply place two readings on the chart. One higher one for the systolic pressure and a lower one for the diastolic pressure. You can then see at a glance how things are developing.

If you are good with computers then you can use a spreadsheet program like microsoft excel to create the same kind of chart.

Many people who buy a home digital blood pressure monitor feel that it gives them a greater sense of involvement in their own healthcare. Others simply get panicky when the monitor readings show a normal and natural variation from day to day. If you do decide to buy a blood pressure monitor then try to get into the habit of checking your reading at or around the same time every day - this will tend to improve the reliability of the results.

What kind of BP monitor do I need to buy?

In general my advice would be to buy the best that you can afford. It's your long term health we're discussing and it's important to take that seriously. The monitors that are now available to buy are for the most part quite accurate. The mid to high range digital monitors are often used in hospital departments or by family doctors and have been carefully tested for accuaracy and reliability. Some of the manual versions (the blood pressure cuff is inflated by hand) tend to lose their accuracy over time. Again - my advice is to buy the best that you can afford.

Make sure that the cuff fits your arm

One of the key things when measuring blood pressure is to choose a cuff that fits comfortably all the way round your arm. If the cuff is too tight then the monitor will return a reading that is higher than the true reading. At the press of a button on the automatic BP monitor the cuff will inflate to a certain level and then automatically deflates again. There is a sensor in the blood pressure cuff that automatically detects the rate of your heart and measures your BP reading.

The result will be displayed on a screen with the higher number showing your systolic BP level and the lower number showing your diastolic BP level.

Upper arm digital monitor

These monitors usually come out as being most accurate and most reliable in independant tests - this is the best kind to buy. The blood pressure cuff goes around the upper part of your arm with the arrow to the front over the artery pulse at the front of your elbow crease.

Wrist or finger digital blood pressure monitor

Most doctors think that these are less reliable than the upper arm version. The readings can be sensitive to movement or to changes in body temperature. Some of the more expensive wrist monitor models are improving their accuracy but are still generally not quite as accurate as the upper arm models. You should make your own mind up about what suits you best but - my best advice is to buy an upper arm digital monitor - choosing to buy a wrist model might leave you regretting it later.

If you do decide to buy a blood pressure monitor then it is important to take it with you to your doctor's office once a year or so and compare the reading it gets with your doctors machine.

Also - don't forget to change the batteries from time to time!

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