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Measuring Your Blood Pressure Reading
by Jim Bruce
Measuring blood pressure can be done at home with a blood pressure cuff or at the doctor's office. The reading that you get when taking your blood pressure measures to facets of blood pressure: systolic and diastolic pressure.
Systolic pressure is force of the flow of blood through the arteries when the heart is beating. While diastolic pressure is the force of the flow of blood when the heart is resting between beats. Your blood pressure reading measures both of these forces and lists the systolic pressure over the diastolic pressure and lists them in units of millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). This means how high the pressure inside of your arteries are able to raise a column of mercury. A reading of 120/75 would mean that your systolic pressure is 120 mm Hg and your diastolic pressure is 75 mm Hg.
Checking Your Reading For High Blood Pressure
You should have your blood pressure reading checked at least once a year by your physician. If your doctor suspects that you have high blood pressure, he or she may not make a final diagnosis of high blood pressure until they take your blood pressure reading several times over three or more days.
Some doctors ask their patients to buy a blood pressure cuff to monitor their own blood pressure and keep a diary of the readings. The doctor may also want to take two or more readings on the days he or she has you take your blood reading. Or the physician may ask that you wear a portable blood pressure monitor. This machine will measure your blood pressure over the course of several days and store the readings so that the doctor can download and examine them.
Either way, taking your blood pressure reading over the course of time will help your doctor determine whether you have a true high blood pressure problem or "white coat hypertension". "White coat hypertension" is a condition where a patient's blood pressure rises just before and during a visit to your doctor, but returns to normal between visits. Anxiety and stress most likely can be attributed to white coat hypertension.
You don't have to go to your doctor to measure your blood pressure. Many drug or grocery stores have machine that will measure your blood pressure reading for free while you're in the store. But remember this, not all of those machines will give you a true, accurate blood pressure reading. A blood pressure monitor or cuff can be purchased at your drug store, many department stores, or online. These are fairly accurate but once purchased, you should take it with you to your doctor's appointment and compare your machine's blood pressure reading with the doctor's.
High Blood Pressure: How High Is Too High?
According tho the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a blood pressure reading below 120/80 mm Hg is classified as normal. If your blood pressure is above this, you are suffering some degree of pre-hypertension or hypertension (high blood pressure). See the chart below to see where you stand with your blood pressure reading:
| Blood Pressure Classification Chart | | Category | Systolic (mm Hg) | Diastolic (mm Hg) | | Normal | Lower than 120 | Lower than 80 | Prehypertension | 120 - 139 | 80 - 89 |
Hypertension
| | Stage 1 | 140-159 | 90-99 | | Stage 2 | 160 or higher | 100 or higher | | Adapted from The Seventh Report on the joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7), NIH Publication No. 03-5233, May 2003 |
The above classification chart is based upon adults, age 18 or older. If your systolic and diastolic readings fall into different categories, use the higher category to classify your blood pressure status.
| Disclaimer: |
The information in this High Blood Pressure section has been taken from a number of sources. It is meant to give you information about certain medicines, but it does not cover all of the possible uses, warnings, side effects, or interactions with other medicines and vitamin or herbal supplements.
This information should not be used as medical advice for individual medical problems. Please talk to your doctor, health professional, and/or your pharmacist for prescription or treatment instructions. |
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