How To Measure Your Blood Pressure

Having Your Blood Pressure Measured By Your Doctor

Your doctor will measure your blood pressure as part of a general health checkup, and the older your get the more important it becomes to have regular checks on blood pressure and your general health.

If your doctor finds your blood pressure is high this is not a time to panic, because a series of readings will be needed over time to check that this is consistent and not just a single high reading. This is also a good time to look at your lifestyle and see if there are things you can do yourself to lower your blood pressure. (See How To Lower Your Blood Pressure).

'White Coat Syndrome' is a problem for blood pressure readings taken in a doctor's surgery, which is where your blood pressure increases when you have it taken by your doctor (who always used to wear a white coat). This is not your natural reading and is just increased by the natural stress of the situation. Some people are more effected by this than others. There are two ways to overcome this. One is to use an accurate blood pressure monitor at home and take your own readings, bearing in mind that these will usually be lower than those taken by your doctor. Many people think that they have bought a faulty blood pressure monitor as their readings are different from their doctor's, and this is the usual reason for this. An alternative is to use Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring using a machine loaned by your doctor.

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring is now recommended as best practice for diagnosing high blood pressure. This consists of putting on a portable blood pressure monitor first thing in the morning and taking it off before your go to bed. The monitor will take regular readings of your blood pressure throughout the day, which your doctor will check to see the pattern over the day. This gives the best indication of your blood pressure.

Measuring Your Own Blood Pressure

Measuring your own blood pressure with one of our blood pressure monitors is simple and straightforward, and we have listed our best buy blood pressure monitors to help you choose the best value. Remember that your blood pressure readings at home may be a little lower than those taken by your doctor at the surgery because you are more relaxed. This effect is called "white coat syndrome" and is because we all tend to be a bit more stressed at the doctor's surgery, even though doctor's don't tend to wear white coats now. The important thing is to look for any trend in the readings, so that you know if your blood pressure is going up or down.

Different Types Of Blood Pressure Monitor

Upper arm blood pressure monitors are used in doctor's surgeries as they are considered the most accurate to use, and are less prone to reading errors than wrist blood pressure monitors. We only stock clinically validated monitors from the leading makers, as these offer the best value for money. Always measure your upper arm to check that the cuff size is correct before buying a blood pressure monitor. Larger or smaller cuffs should be bought as extras if needed. Details can be found on each monitor's information page.

Wrist blood pressure monitors are the easiest type to use, though you do need to pay particular attention to make sure that they are held at the same level as your heart during the reading, otherwise they can give inaccurate results. However they are much less fiddly to use than upper arm blood pressure monitors. Always measure wrist to check that the cuff size is correct before buying a blood pressure monitor. Details can be found on each monitor's information page. The more expensive ones use positioning technology to check that you are holding it at the right level.

More expensive blood pressure monitors have more features, which can be really useful, such as checking if there has been a problem with the reading, such as if you have moved, or it has detected irregular heart beats. You can also download results to your computer and print them out or show them visually on a graph, which gives a much better indication of readings over time. More expensive monitors are not necessarily more accurate though.

There is no official standard for blood pressure monitors to check if they are accurate, and so it is best to choose one which has been clinically validated by an independent test.

Choose your blood pressure monitor carefully. For more help see How To Choose A Blood Pressure Monitor.

Morning Blood Pressure

The morning surge in blood pressure when you get up is thought to be particularly important, as this surge may cause a heart attack or stroke, which often happen at this time, especially during the winter, as this surge is greater in cold weather. The higher blood pressure at this time can settle down during the morning, and is then not picked up by your doctor when measuring your blood pressure. It is thought that using a blood pressure monitor at home can detect this, which your doctor can miss. It can also detect if your blood pressure medication is not working at this time. Some blood pressure monitors such as the Omron M10-IT have a special function to record and chart your morning readings.

Measure Blood Pressure In Both Arms

Blood pressure is often measured in only one arm, and this is fine for tracking blood pressure changes over time, when the same arm should be used for all readings. This is how you should use a home blood pressure monitor for checking if your blood pressure is increasing over time or to check how well your lifestyle changes or blood pressure medicines are working to control your blood pressure.

Blood pressure measurements should be the same in both arms, with only small differences. This is the case in most people. However, checking that this is the case for you is worthwhile doing on an occasional basis.

For more details see our article Measuring Blood Pressure In Both Arms.