


To understand blood pressure monitors, you have to understand blood pressure, which is “a measure of how hard your blood pushes against your artery walls as it circulates throughout your body,” explains Golden. So, whether or not you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, if you don’t already monitor your blood pressure at home, now is a good time to start. Home monitoring allows for multiple readings at different times, providing a more accurate picture.”įrom there, the insights can help you adjust your lifestyle to maintain healthy levels, as factors like stress, exercise, and diet all have an impact. “Blood pressure can change throughout the course of the day. “More readings mean more accuracy,” adds Dr. Plus, measuring blood pressure at home helps you and your doctor get a better understanding of your levels, as an anxiety-induced phenomenon called “white coat syndrome” is often responsible for elevated numbers during office visits, explains Ernst von Schwarz, M.D., a Los Angeles-based cardiologist and author of The Secrets of Immortality. Golden, M.D., board-certified emergency medical physician and medical editor at GoodRx.

Meet the Experts: Karishma Patwa, M.D., cardiologist at Manhattan Cardiology in New York City, Ernst von Schwarz, M.D., a Los Angeles-based cardiologist and author of The Secrets of Immortality, and Katie E. “People may not be aware they have high blood pressure until they suffer a significant health consequence, like a heart attack or stroke.” Monitoring blood pressure on your own, therefore, could quite literally be life-saving. There are many reasons to keep a blood pressure monitor at home, the main one being that high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) frequently has no symptoms and can easily go undetected, explains Karishma Patwa, M.D., cardiologist at Manhattan Cardiology in New York City.
