Checking Blood Pressure at Home, Properly

Home blood pressure readings are genuinely useful — they remove the anxiety spike many people get at a clinic. But a badly taken reading leads to the wrong medicine dose, so technique matters.

Sit quietly for five minutes first, back supported, feet flat, arm resting at heart level. No tea, coffee or cigarettes for thirty minutes beforehand, and empty your bladder first.

Take two readings a minute apart, morning and evening, and record both with the date. Do this for seven days before your appointment and bring the log. A single high reading tells us very little; a week of them tells us almost everything.

Use a validated upper-arm cuff of the correct size. Wrist and finger devices are convenient but unreliable, and a cuff that is too small will consistently over-read.