Hi, I’m Farah Myers, family nurse practitioner and owner at Cool Creek Family Health, and I wanted to talk a little bit about checking your blood pressure at home. I have a lot of patients that we do ambulatory monitoring with where they’re checking their blood pressure at home. It’s a convenient way to keep tabs on their blood pressure without having to make it in for a visit every single time. But, a lot of times they’re not sure how to do it properly. So, I’m going to show you how.
First things first, you want to make sure that when you’re measuring your blood pressure, you have an empty bladder. Having a full bladder can increase your blood pressure by 5 to 10 points. So we want to make sure that we’ve gone to the bathroom ahead of time.
Next, we’re going to sit down for about 3 to 5 minutes. That’s going to give our body a chance to just calm down and bring our blood pressure down. When we get up and we’re moving around, our blood pressure is up and higher. So, we want to give it a chance to calm down. Aim for 3 to 5 minutes of quiet sitting before you take your blood pressure measurements.
Also important: have your back resting in your chair and your arm rested and both feet on the floor. Do not cross your legs when you’re getting your blood pressure measured.
So, you’ve emptied your bladder, you’ve rested, and you are sitting properly. Let’s do it. We recommend using a wrist cuff as they can be pretty reliable at home. Take the wrist cuff and put it on with the measurement on the inside. Make sure your cuff is level with your heart when you’re taking this measurement. Now you start it by pressing the button, cross it over your arm and just try to relax. Make sure that your hand isn’t tensed and your wrist isn’t cocked in any way.
It’s also important to make sure nobody’s talking to you and you’re not actively listening to anything. So no watching TV or listening to a podcast. Or, if your spouse comes into the room, tell them to zip it for a little bit.
So, that’s it. You get your blood pressure measured and then you’re good to go record it. Send a couple measurements over to your primary care provider and we can help you make sure that your medication management is where it needs to be.
Some people have higher measurements in the office, so this is one way I use with my patients to make sure that their blood pressure is normal at home, even if they’re a little bit nervous in the office. I hope this helps as an opportunity for you to learn how to best measure your blood pressure at home. Thanks so much for tuning in.
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