Commonly Asked Questions

Why Should I Monitor My Blood Pressure At Home? By monitoring at home, you can manage your health between doctor visits. Home monitoring also provides you with a record of blood pressure measurements over time to give to your doctor - a valuable tool in monitoring hypertension.

Home monitoring may also help alleviate White Coat Hypertension. This term refers to the medical phenomena which causes many individuals’ blood pressure to be higher when taken in a medical office setting. That’s because many times the stress of being in the doctor’s office may cause blood pressure to rise as much as 20-50 points higher than normal. When monitoring at home, you can get a truer indication of your blood pressure in a normal, relaxed state.

What Is Blood Pressure?

The commonly used term “blood pressure” refers to the force or pressure that is exerted on the body’s arteries as blood flows through them. Each time the heart beats or contracts it produces pressure in the arteries.

This blood pressure is what moves blood through the body, supplying oxygen and nutrients to every organ.

Commonly Asked Questions

When the heart contracts it sends blood out into the body. This force of blood within the arteries is called systolic pressure.

The pressure that remains as the heart relaxes between beats is called diastolic pressure.

systolic

diastolic

pulse

What Is Considered Normal Blood Pressure?

The well-respected World Health Organization (WHO) has set forth the following guidelines regarding high (commonly referred to as hypertension), low and borderline blood pressure.

Hypertension

Borderline

Normal

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Walgreens BD-1234W manual Commonly Asked Questions, What Is Blood Pressure?, Systolic Diastolic Pulse