Alterations to our diet and lifestyle today mean that a growing number of people are suffering from hypertension and it is vital for us to monitor our blood pressure regularly. Luckily this no longer means having to drag ourselves to the doctors surgery and the wide range of simple to use and reasonably inexpensive monitors available nowadays permits us to monitor our blood pressure in the comfort of our own homes. Despite this, though measuring our pressure may be easy enough, interpreting the figures is not always quite so easy.
Blood pressure will differ from one person to the next and also fluctuates according to things like the time of day and what we eat. Because of this we cannot simply say that normal blood pressure is a given set of numbers and that if you find yourself more than a given number of either above or below these you should see your doctor. However, what we are able to do is to come up with a series of bands which denote various degrees of high and low blood pressure in relation to a pair of baseline readings which are representative of the vast majority of people and that is exactly what a blood pressure chart does.
A traditional blood chart is a visual representation of a range of blood pressure readings both below and above the norm together with advice on what the bands tell you about your blood pressure.
For example, if you were to take your blood pressure and come up with a systolic reading of 133 and a diastolic reading of 86, this quite possibly will not mean very much to you, apart from the fact that it might appear a little bit high. However, if you draw a line on a blood pressure chart between the higher systolic number on the left of the chart and the low diastolic number on the right of the chart you will find that the line lies within a band which is a bit above normal and that, although it is close to the borderline for hypertension, it is still within an acceptable range.
Likewise, if you were to record a reading of 153 over 92 this would be classed as a mild case of hypertension. But, the chart would also reveal that this reading on its own should not be a cause for concern and could merely be the result of measuring your blood pressure early in the morning when your pressure is usually slightly high or of measuring it shortly after you have eaten something which is salty.
Blood pressure charts of this nature are extremely useful for giving you a snapshot of your pressure at a given moment but perhaps a better picture would be given by a daily blood pressure chart which is drawn up over a period of time.
A lot of modern blood pressure monitors have the ability to store your readings and they may either be printed out and simply plotted by hand on graph paper or may be used in conjunction with one of several widely available software programs to produce a full-color history of your blood pressure over the past few days.
Whichever method you select there is little question that having a picture of your blood pressure over time can make monitoring your health considerably easier.
Blood pressure will differ from one person to the next and also fluctuates according to things like the time of day and what we eat. Because of this we cannot simply say that normal blood pressure is a given set of numbers and that if you find yourself more than a given number of either above or below these you should see your doctor. However, what we are able to do is to come up with a series of bands which denote various degrees of high and low blood pressure in relation to a pair of baseline readings which are representative of the vast majority of people and that is exactly what a blood pressure chart does.
A traditional blood chart is a visual representation of a range of blood pressure readings both below and above the norm together with advice on what the bands tell you about your blood pressure.
For example, if you were to take your blood pressure and come up with a systolic reading of 133 and a diastolic reading of 86, this quite possibly will not mean very much to you, apart from the fact that it might appear a little bit high. However, if you draw a line on a blood pressure chart between the higher systolic number on the left of the chart and the low diastolic number on the right of the chart you will find that the line lies within a band which is a bit above normal and that, although it is close to the borderline for hypertension, it is still within an acceptable range.
Likewise, if you were to record a reading of 153 over 92 this would be classed as a mild case of hypertension. But, the chart would also reveal that this reading on its own should not be a cause for concern and could merely be the result of measuring your blood pressure early in the morning when your pressure is usually slightly high or of measuring it shortly after you have eaten something which is salty.
Blood pressure charts of this nature are extremely useful for giving you a snapshot of your pressure at a given moment but perhaps a better picture would be given by a daily blood pressure chart which is drawn up over a period of time.
A lot of modern blood pressure monitors have the ability to store your readings and they may either be printed out and simply plotted by hand on graph paper or may be used in conjunction with one of several widely available software programs to produce a full-color history of your blood pressure over the past few days.
Whichever method you select there is little question that having a picture of your blood pressure over time can make monitoring your health considerably easier.
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