BP Self-Monitoring
Sometimes blood pressure readings can vary from moment to moment.  It is very difficult to make judgements about changing blood pressure treatments based on isolated readings. It is easy to learn how to take your own blood pressure.  Since cuffs are available for self-monitoring, we believe that the ideal situation is for the patient to be the expert, and for the doctor to be the consultant! 

Ideal blood pressure is 120/80.  The heart beats around 70 times per minute, and there are 1440 minutes per day!  The heart beats an amazing 100,000 times daily.  If the pressure is 140/100, the mean pressure in the system is approximately 120, as opposed to normal 120/80 where the mean pressure is 100.  Thus the heart is pumping 20% too hard, 100,000 times daily, 3 million times monthly! This puts a tremendous strain on the pump and the hoses (the heart and the arteries).  

Ultimately this increases the likelihood of heart failure, and burst brain arteries, i.e. stroke.  Since many patients have high blood pressure when visiting the doctor, white coat syndrome, we often are unable to determine the relevance of a borderline reading.  We have inexpensive cuffs available in the office.  One of our medical assistants can teach you how to read your pressure.  By checking your readings a few times weekly, in different situations, you begin to appreciate the relevance of stress and diet on daily pressure changes.  By becoming an expert, you can see when weight gain and stress mandate the need for increased vigilance and/or medicine.  Otherwise, you might have 3 million beats when the pump is set on overdrive, before we recognize the need to re-adjust!

Get a cuff, monitor your pressures, keep a diary, bring your list of readings to the office in a few weeks, with your cuff, and let us make sure the cuff is calibrated well, and that you are measuring accurately.  Then you are on your own.  You do not need to come in every few weeks to have your reading checked.  By being in control, you can call if things do not seem right.  You cannot tell when your pressure is up by the way you feel!  You do not need to be paranoid about your pressure, but you do need to be on top of it.  Save time, save aggravation, increase accuracy by being the expert.