Blood pressure - is it high, low or j... - British Heart Fou...

British Heart Foundation

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Blood pressure - is it high, low or just right?

Calliope153 profile image
8 Replies

This link makes working it out easy - just type in the two numbers . (In the boxes about half way down the page) and it tells you....

nhs.uk/conditions/high-bloo...

Now i have my new monitor which takes 3 readings and gives you the average (my GP insists on getting an average) at the press of the button and this link I now no longer have to practice the 3 times table and short division for a week before each appointment......

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Calliope153 profile image
Calliope153
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8 Replies
Lezzers profile image
Lezzers

Thank you, I've used this link before & it's very useful. Can I ask which BP monitor you have that gives an average. We're always having to submit BP readings to the GP, trying to do a month's worth of averages wasn't easy, especially for my small brain 😂

Calliope153 profile image
Calliope153 in reply toLezzers

After 2 years I finally bought a new one and couldn;t believe it had this nifty little button that did the averages...... bought from BHF shop online (which did not mention the little averaging button - I actually read the instruction sheet when it arrived and found this "It can also calculate an average value based on the last three measurement values taken in the last ten minutes" . Victory dance round room when I read this as husband (middle names Ebenezer Scrooge) was insisting I could have made do with the basic model. The one I bought was:

OMRON M3 Comfort Blood Pressure Monitor £55

It has an enormous display - don;t need my glasses to read it - and two person memory store. And, unlike the 10 year old model it replaced (not branded), the cuff is really comfortable and it doesn't require the air tube to be placed absolutely perfectly on the arm ( unlike the last one or an error message appeared).

To say I am pleased with it - take three readings, press button and write result down and no more to do before GP appointment - is an understatement. Wish I had got it just after my HA - perhaps my arm would not have been so bruised for the year I had to take the old Cloppy dog.... don't forget any profit on the sale goes to BHF.

Lezzers profile image
Lezzers in reply toCalliope153

Thank you, we’re currently using the nhs monitor given to us by the heart nurse who we think has forgotten she gave it to us! The Omron’s do seem to be the best. Having submitted BP readings for the last 2/3 months, I was hoping it took the readings and gave an average over the month .....incredibly lazy of me I know!

Calliope153 profile image
Calliope153 in reply toLezzers

Not lazy - life too short to do junior school sums at our age!

Lezzers profile image
Lezzers in reply toCalliope153

I was never any good at sums at any age!! We’ve been submitting BP readings for a few months now, we’re at the point we do the BP once a day, just write the numbers down and hand them over! When we had to do it 3 times a day for a month, it broke us 🤪

CraftyGirl72 profile image
CraftyGirl72

Ha! Just typed in last weeks digits and it was having none of it! See a doctor as your diastolic is outside normal range!

I know that is why he put me on some new drugs (6th attempt) and surprise surprise 2 days on and I feel like hell now my reading is close to normal!!!

I can't win... high I feel fine, normal I feel awful. I only went as I knew it was very high due to stress (stress related HF) once stress abates I sit at high feeling absolutely fine. Grrrrr.... waiting on a 24hr again.

Calliope153 profile image
Calliope153 in reply toCraftyGirl72

After my heart attack my brother had to get checked out to see if he had inherited the bicuspid valve too. He runs, does martial arts to black belt standard, eats vegetarian diet but his usual blood pressure is in excess of 156 over 106...... he;s tried blood pressure tablets but he just feels like hell too. His GP is ploughing on .... like you he feels great when the bp is high. It defies explanation.

CraftyGirl72 profile image
CraftyGirl72 in reply toCalliope153

Glad I am not alone! I exercise (5K runs, cycle a little, and follow some online programmes to help strength) , I eat a healthy diet most of time and feel good at 140/90. I only agreed to try another drug as it had gone way above that.

Currently in bed scared to face getting up after yesterday's clinging to everything to stay upright!

Few more days and if doesn't settle I am binning tablets with all other rejects!

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