How to Take Blood Pressure
As people age, the more prone they become to health problems like hypertension and heart disease. It is important to have a regular monitoring of your blood pressure if you want to remain active and healthy.
Take a look at the step-by-step guide that follows on how to take blood pressure.
Required Materials
A manual or automatic blood pressure machine or sphygmomanometer
A small notebook or journal
Pen or pencil
Note: There are a lot of brands and models of sphygmomanometers available in the market today, but they all essentially have the same function. Thus, once you have learned how to use one particular type of blood pressure machine, you can easily adapt to the operation of either a manual or an electrical sphygmomanometer.
Instructions
Check whether the equipment is working properly. If you just recently bought the sphygmomanometer, read the manual thoroughly and call the manufacturer should you have any doubts about the operation of the blood pressure machine. Generally, automatic blood pressure machines just have an off and on switch. You just need to turn the machine on and it should be ready to use. For the manual types of sphygmomanometer, check on the instructions to determine how to prepare the equipment before getting the blood pressure measurement.
Once you have the equipment ready, use the left arm to take the blood pressure reading. The sphygmomanometer should come with a wrist or arm cuff. If the equipment comes with a wrist cuff, the left arm should be raised to chest-level to get accurate readings. If it comes with an arm cuff, the person whose blood pressure will be measured should rest the left elbow on a surface. Then, fit the cuff on the upper arm until it feels snug enough.
The process of measuring the blood pressure will be automatically done by the machine once the arm or wrist cuff is fitted. Once the sphygmomanometer is switched on, the cuff will be tightened. Then, the blood pressure reading is taken and the cuff will deflate. This only takes about a couple of seconds or so.
After the machine has done its job, it is your turn to read the measurements. The blood pressure level is measured as the number of millimeters of Mercury or mm-Hg over the per-minute rate of the pulse. A sample measurement for the average adult who is at rest is 120 over 80.
Tips and Warnings
You need to remember that the ‘right’ blood pressure actually depends on your age, health status and body type – so what may seem to be too high a blood pressure for one person may be normal for another. Another factor that will matter in your blood pressure level is the time of day, your position, or the activity that you engaged in prior to the measurement. It is best to consult your doctor to learn about the ideal blood pressure for you.