1. What is blood pressure ?
Blood pressure is a measurement of the force of blood Àowing against the walls of the arteries. Arterial blood pressure is constantly changing during the course of the cardiac cycle. The highest pressure in the cycle is called the systolic blood pressure, the lowest is the diastolic blood pressure. Both pressure readings, the systolic and the diastolic are necessary to enable a physician to evaluate the status of a patient's blood pressure. Many factors such as physical activity, anxiety or the time of day, can inÀuence your blood pressure. Blood pressure is typically low in the morning and increases from the afternoon to the evening. It is lower in the summer and higher in the winter.
2. Why is it useful to measure blood pressure at home ?
Having one's blood pressure measured by a doctor in a hospital or a clinic, and a group health checks, tend to stimulate nervousness in the subject and may even create high blood pressure. Also varies blood pressure in accordance with a variety of conditions and so judgment is not possible on the basis of a single measurement.
The blood pressure measured ¿rst thing in the morning after getting up, before taking any food and with the subject still, is known as the fundamental blood pressure. In practice it is rather dif¿cult to record the fundamental blood pressure, but to come
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