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Blood Pressure Equipment
Check Your Own Blood Pressure
Health professionals say that you should have your blood pressure checked from time to time. We recommend that part of the time, you check it yourself at home with your own equipment. Not all doctors or nurses remember to use the proper sized cuff for an ample-sized arm, and too small a cuff can give an excessively high reading, leading to an incorrect diagnosis. Even if the cuff fits on the arm, it is the bladder size inside the cuff that controls the readings. (This happened to Nancy for several months, until her doctor was shown his mistake—meanwhile she was suffering from an overdose of blood-pressure medication!)
It's easy to check your own blood pressure (or have a friend do it) with a home blood pressure kit. You may also need an accessory large-sized cuff in the proper size for your arm. It's very important that you measure your upper arm's circumference before ordering any accessory cuffs.
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For people with upper arms measuring more than 17-19 inches around, it's often a good idea to own a standard (non-digital) cuff that fits and to take it with you when visiting the doctor or other healthcare provider. They can often connect your cuff temporarily to their own instruments, but it is helpful if you also have your own squeeze bulb and pressure gauge connected to your cuff, so that they don't have to do anything involving their equipment. Health professionals react well to larger patients who have their own cuffs, since extra-large cuffs are often not available at many offices—although they should be! We sell more than twice as many larger cuffs as blood pressure kits.
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Price: From $29.50 to $149.50
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Price: From $9.95 to $39.50
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