When buying a good blood pressure monitor, keep in mind that manual monitors are the best to get. With an electric or automatic BP monitor you may get an inaccurate reading. When you look in a reference book what they call a textbook blood pressure or a perfect one the example is usually 120/80. You should never get an uneven number when you take your BP, as you often do when using an electric one.
Most drug stores can get you a fairly basic BP monitor, that will run you anywhere from to a really good one that can go as high as or more. The American Diagnostic Corporation 760 Diagnostics Adult, Manual Blood Pressure Sphygmomanometer will run you about . It is a manual cuff that allows you to take your BP and read it on the numeric meter.
However, if you prefer an electric meter, you need to find the most accurate reader you can. Finger monitors and wrist cuffs are almost useless. You can find a monitor with a cuff that slips on your arm like the traditional manual one and will give you a mostly accurate reading.
Electric monitors are expensive and will run you for a basic one starting at and going as high as 0. You could probably get away with a automatic one and get an accurate reading. The best place to buy one of those monitors is at either Wal-Mart or a home health company. Omron offers a good automatic blood pressure cuff. They have fairly reliable meter readers in automatic cuffs.
There are several stores and websites that will allow you to get a good cuff, do your body a favor by monitoring this most important part of your life, especially if high blood pressure runs in your family. High blood pressure is a silent killer. It can cause symptoms of headaches, and nauseous are two signs of abnormal blood pressure.
100,000 people a year are affected by high BP. Race has a lot to do with how you are affected. Last year the numbers of those killed by high blood pressure are as follows. 15.6% for white males, 51.1% for black males, 14.3% for white females and 37.7% for black females. As you can see black people are at the highest risk for high blood pressure and most of that percentage were unaware of the condition in their body.
Buying a good BP monitor could not only save your life but, could help you catch a potentially harmful illness before it causes you severe problems or costs you your life. Several drug stores like Walgreens, and Rite Aid, carry good monitors. As well as websites like Amazon and hospital-homecare. These websites are helpful in all manners of home health. Another good thing to have on hand is an extra stethoscope. This will allow you to have an extra piece of the monitor, that if your other one malfunctions, you have a back up.
When using a BP monitor, an electric one or automatic one will give you the reading without you doing a lot except pushing a button. If you use a manual one you must listen for the first beat and the last heartbeat that you hear in the stethoscope. You should follow the chart below to tell you what is normal and what is dangerous.
Category Systolic (mm Hg) Diastolic (mm Hg) Normal* less than 120 and less than 80 Pre-hypertension 120-139 or 80-89 Hypertension Stage 1 140-159 or 90-99 Stage 2 160 or higher or 100 or higher.
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