High Blood Pressure: Checking Your Blood Pressure at Home| Excerpt

Why should you measure your own blood pressure?
 

When you take your own blood pressure, you can do it at different times and in different places, such as at home, at work, and when you travel. This helps your doctor to:

• Decide whether you have high blood pressure.
• Check whether a certain medicine is helping to lower your blood pressure.
• See if you have low blood pressure that may be caused by irregular heart rhythms, certain medicines, or other medical conditions.
• Make sure that any medicines you take for other problems are not causing episodes of high blood pressure.

When you have high blood pressure, taking your own measurements can help you see how medicine or lifestyle changes are helping to lower your blood pressure. It can help you feel more involved in and more in control of your own health care.

Some people have a big rise in blood pressure only when they are in a doctor’s office. This is called “white-coat hypertension.” It probably is caused by worry about the doctor visit. By checking blood pressure at home, these people can often find out whether their blood pressure readings generally are lower when they are not in the doctor’s office. Read more -

High Blood Pressure: Checking Your Blood Pressure at Home