Is your doc taking your blood pressure reading all WRONG?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Earlier this week, I provided you with a FREE guide to enjoying today’s holiday spread… guilt-free. In case you missed it, click here!

In the meantime…

Do you monitor your blood pressure (BP) at home?

Or do you solely rely on the reading taken during medical visits?

Either way, there’s a new study with valuable insights for you and your physician…

Because it emphasizes the correct way to take a BP reading.

After all, who wants to be treated for hypertension (high BP) if they don’t actually need to be?

Your arm position matters

According to this new study, your arm position could cause a serious overestimation of your BP—especially if your arm is resting in your lap or hanging by your side.

The most accurate way? Place the cuff at heart level and support the cuffed arm on a desk (or other surface).

In this study, participants were randomly assigned to get a series of BP measurements with their arms positioned in three ways: supported on a desk, supported on their lap, or unsupported and hanging at the side.

To ensure consistency, the researchers also measured BP a fourth time with the arm supported on a desk.

(This is important because the first BP reading is often the highest. See, people tend to need a moment to adjust, and many feel anxious about getting their BP taken. So, it was critical to collect BP data from supporting the arm on a desk more than once.)

Ultimately, when comparing systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number) BP readings, researchers found the following:

• Supporting the arm on the lap overestimated systolic BP by 3.9 mmHg and diastolic BP by 4.0 mmHg
• Leaving the arm hang by the side increased systolic BP by 6.5 mmHg and diastolic BP by 4.4 mmHg

Those are drastic overestimations associated to common arm positions!

Help spread awareness

Hopefully, this information will disseminate through the medical community and to those of you who take your BP readings at home.

I certainly encourage you to share these valuable insights with your loved ones and to be proactive at your next doctor’s visit. If your doctor isn’t taking your BP with the cuff at heart level and your arm supported on a desk or table, ask them to adjust.

If they won’t take your word for why those two variables matter for an accurate BP reading, go ahead and print out this e-letter and the referenced article and spread the awareness. (After all, I can’t educate our entire healthcare system alone!)

By doing so, you’ll be helping me, yourself, and many others get an accurate BP reading. And, hopefully, it will lessen the amount of unnecessary hypertension medications being prescribed.

To learn more about combatting high BP and safeguard your heart against America’s biggest killers, like a heart attack, check out my Ultimate Heart-Protection Protocol. Click here now!

Source:

“Johns Hopkins Medicine Study Finds Commonly Used Arm Positions Can Substantially Overestimate Blood Pressure Readings