Checking Your Blood Pressure at Home: What You Need to Know

Creating the Right Environment

- Find a quiet, calm place to take your blood pressure. If you're doing it manually, then you will need a place where it is easy to hear. Excess noise or being in an unsettling place can cause stress, which will raise your blood pressure.

- Be sure to sit for a about ten minutes before checking your blood pressure. Sit up straight with your legs uncrossed and put your arm in a resting position to get the best reading possible.

- Make certain that you are comfortable! Taking your blood pressure when you aren't comfortable won't give you a good reading of your resting blood pressure. 

Manually Checking your Blood Pressure at Home

To check your blood pressure, you will need a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer
Image from: http://andreadenney.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Aneroid-Sphygmomanometer-with-Stethoscope-MS-117-.jpg

1. Find your pulse. You should be able to feel it in the bend of your elbow. If you have trouble pinpointing it, try using your stethoscope. 

2. Put the cuff on your arm and adjust it so that it is snug but not uncomfortably tight. 

3. Place your stethoscope above the artery so that you will able to hear it when taking your blood pressure and put the ear pieces in your ear. 

4. Ensure that the airflow valve is closed on the sphygmomanometer. 

5. Pump up the cuff by squeezing the bulb, continuing until the pressure gauge read about 30 above your expected top blood pressure number.

6. Slowly allow the air to exit the cuff, so that the pressure around the arm is gradually lowered.

7. Use the stethoscope to listen for the first heart beat. The pressure in the cuff at this time is the top number (systolic) of your blood pressure. 

8. Write down this number and then continue to let the air out of the cuff. 

9. When you can no longer hear the beating, the pressure shown is the blood blood pressure number (diastolic). 

Directions adapted from WebMD 

This student does a good job of explaining how to measure the blood pressure of a patient. You could use this video to help learn to take your own blood pressure or to teach family members to help with taking your blood pressure. MAKE SURE to let the air out of the pressure cuff SLOWLY until you've gotten used to the process!

The American Heart Association has made this resource available for you to use in tracking your blood pressure. Use it to get started monitoring your blood pressure!

Sources:

Mayo Clinic

American Heart Association