tropicana_hannah asked:
I remeber learning about counting the beats n all with ur fingers at ur wrist. But i dont remember it all. Is that technique to find out your blood pressure? How can i find out my blood pressure at home?
Answers to all of your questions about blood pressure.
Counting the beats will give you your heart rate (pulse) not your blood pressure.
You can check your blood pressure at home, but you need a machine to do it. They are commercially available machines that aren’t too expensive. The cuff/stethoscope method isn’t real practical to do on yourself.
If you’re just curious, and don’t want to invest in a BP machine, check out your local pharmacy or grocery store; many of them have BP machines that you can sit in, put your arm through the cuff and get a free BP reading.
Hope that helps.
Your fingers at your wrist would be pulse rate. If you have a portable blood pressure cuff, you can do this at home. There are small blood pressure machines you can use, but they are expensive, I believe.
The medical literature of the past 20 years strongly suggests that home blood pressure readings taken within one hour of awakening correlate best with cardiovascular risk (events such as heart attack and ‘stroke’) and I have for the past 5 years used home readings to define those who require treatment and to monitor the effects of treatment. There is no definition of ‘normal’ blood pressure so there is no definition of ‘high’ blood pressure and in fact there is a linear increase in cardiovascular risk with readings above 110/060. Although I have no preference among blood pressure monitors the Rely-On which sells for $50 at WalMart is a Consumer Reports ‘Best Buy’. The only other caveat is that the monitor must be for the upper arm as the is no data on for the forearm, wrist, or finger. The only other comment is that the technology of blood pressure monitors has not advanced in the past 100+ years and the technology is most needed for those who are overweight as the upper arm tends to be more conically shaped than cylindrical and readings are more difficult to obtain. If you take home blood pressure readings and would like to know how to interpret them email me at
Go to your local drugstore…Walgreen’s….and purchase a blood pressure monitor. You can most easily use a wrist model. If you want to go online, look for a Omron brand wrist cuff. They work great and are much easier to use by yourself than a model that goes around your upper arm.