Measuring Your Blood Pressure at Home

Knowing what your blood pressure is and having a consistently accurate reading that you can trust is important, not only for you when you are testing at home but also for your health professional. Inaccurate readings can lead to misdiagnosis, and can mean the difference between having treatment or not.

Some people would like to be able to monitor their blood pressure at home and many doctors encourage this. Many people see their doctor or nurse every three months, six months or each year, once their blood pressure is under control. In between these times it can be very useful to regularly check your own blood pressure at home.

Machines for measuring your blood pressure are not available on the NHS, you will have to buy your own. However, in some cases your doctor or nurse may lend you a machine for a period of time. Some clinics, doctors and nurses will ask you to bring in your own machine before you start measuring at home, so that they can check the machine is accurate and can answer any questions that you might have.

Taking and monitoring blood pressure can make you feel more in control of your condition, and more confident that any medicines that you take and any changes that you make to your lifestyle are working. However, measuring blood pressure at home can also make some people feel more anxious about their readings, not less. If this is the case, make sure that you resist the temptation to take readings more often than your doctor has advised. It will also help to make sure you are familiar and comfortable with taking your own readings and that your make your measurements part of your daily routine.

Readings to aim for at home
The aim of treatment for high blood pressure is to reduce it, when measured by your doctor or nurse, to 140/85mmHg or below. This figure applies to readings that are taken in the surgery or clinic. When your blood pressure is measured in a clinic, particularly with a doctor but also with a nurse, it may be higher than when you are more relaxed at home. It is therefore important that with your own measurements at home, ideally they should be below 140/85mmHg. However, in some people this may be difficult to achieve.As blood pressure varies in everybody by quite a large amount, there will always be one or two readings when you measure your blood pressure which will be higher, so always repeat the measurements when you are more relaxed. However, if you find that on repeated measurement your blood pressure is higher than usual make sure that you go and see your doctor or nurse, taking details of the measurements with you.

How often do I take readings?
Your doctor or nurse will tell you when you need to measure your blood pressure. When you first start measuring your blood pressure at home, you will probably check it twice a day, morning and evening. This may go down to once a day and then to once a week when your blood pressure is under control and you become confident at measuring it. Try and take it at the same times each day or week.When you take your blood pressure, sit down and rest your arm on a firm surface, such as a table. Follow the instructions that come with the monitor and make sure that you keep a record of all your readings, and ideally the time that you took your last tablet.