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1. What is blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the measurement of the force of blood pushing
against the walls of the arteries. Arterial blood pressure is
constantly fluctuating during the course of the cardiac cycle. The
highest pressure in the cycle is called the systolic blood pressure,
and represents the pressure in the artery when the heart is beating.
The lowest pressure is the diastolic blood pressure, and represents
the pressure in the artery when the heart is at rest. Both the systolic
and the diastolic pressure are necessary for a physician to evaluate
the status of a patient's blood pressure.
Many factors such as physical activity, anxiety or the time of day, can
influence your blood pressure. Blood pressure is typically low in the
mornings and increases from the afternoon to the evening. It is on
average lower in the summer and higher in the winter.
2. Why is it useful to measure blood pressure at home?
Having one's blood pressure measured by a doctor in a hospital or
a clinic, is often associated with a phenomenon called “White Coat
Hypertension” where the patient becomes nervous or anxious, thus
raising his blood pressure. There are also numerous other factors
that might cause your blood pressure to be raised at a specific
time of day. This is why medical practitioners recommend home
monitoring as it is important to get readings of blood pressure
during different times of the day to really get an idea of your real
blood pressure.
Medical practitioners generally recommend the “Rule of 3”, where
you are encouraged to take your blood pressure three times in a
row (at 3 ~ 5 minute interval), three times a day for three days. After
three days you can average all the results and this will give you an
accurate idea of what your blood pressure really is.
ABOUT BLOOD PRESSURE
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