Boots Blood Pressure Monitors

[heebeegeetee]

Hi All,

Am due to have my left knee replaced next month.

It now seems I have a bit of a blood pressure issue. I've just had a 24 hour blood pressure test and there;s a bit of an issue, mainly with my diastolic pressure. I'm hoping a complete overhaul of lifestyle will address it in the long term.

Whilst attending to this I wouldn't mind being able to monitor this myself. Boots have a couple of inexpensive options, anyone have any experience with this type of thing? I reckon the wrist one would be less of a faff to use, over the upper arm one, has anyone any knowledge/experience/thoughts?

Thanks chaps.

http://www.boots.com/boots-blood-pressure-monitor-...

http://www.boots.com/boots-pharmaceuticals-blood-p...

Or a more advanced upper arm one: http://www.boots.com/boots-pharmaceuticals-advance...

[RammyMP]

I've just had the 24 hour monitor, it's a right pain isn't it! I've got the boots upper arm one, seems to work fine.

Incidentally, I've been put on tablets to try and reduce my BP, the change of lifestyle didn't really have much effect. The other option is to cut out the booze completely!

[motco]

I've had an Omron M4 for twenty years and recently bought an M2 Basic because I feared the old one had drifted off calibration. It's too early in the use of the new one to know, but the M2 Amazon is very good value and clinically approved apparently. My M4 cost the thick end of £100 in 1997.

I am unconvinced wrist types are as good based entirely on the absence of them in hospitals. The 24h device got the BP Stasi off my back by showing a perfectly good level at rest and asleep. White coat hypertension is a very real phenomenon for me.

[douglasb]

If someone has high blood pressure my local surgery are happy to accept a spreadsheet of home readings (rather than one-off surgery readings) provided that they are taken on an "arm cuff" machine and not a wrist one. They are also happy if you take along your arm cuff machine to get a comparison of what it reads compared to what their machine reads so that they have an idea of how accurate your home readings are. They won't entertain this with wrist machines,

I think that this tells you what you need to know about the relative merits of wrist versus arm monitors.

[heebeegeetee]

Many thanks for that advice, guys, wrist monitors now disregarded, and an Omron M2 has been ordered, I see there's a high number of good reviews on Amazon for it.

Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated.

[sjabrown]

Arm cuff. Get it checked against a calibrated machine in your GP surgery: nurse or healthcare assistant should be able to do this with you.

[FiF]

sjabrown said:

Arm cuff. Get it checked against a calibrated machine in your GP surgery: nurse or healthcare assistant should be able to do this with you.

That^^^, they'll be happy to help you with that, shows you are serious.

[super7]

Make sure you get the right cuff size as well.... big biceps + standard cuff = significant over reading.... so if you have a big bicep get a big cuff!!!!

In my case it was the difference between a high reading needing further investigation and a reading in the normal band.

[heebeegeetee]

All good points guys, many thanks indeed.

[Aston Traveller]

FYI you can get your Omron BP meters calibrated by Omron for £20-00. Bargain. Mine only took about 10 days and they replaced the cuff with a new one. Ideally the meters should be calibrated annually.

[motco]

Just for interest my Good Lady and I have tried both my twenty year old Omron M4 and our new Omron M2 Basic in successive measurements. With both of us it was no more than 2mm Hg different on one figure and identical on the other. For mass produced 'home-use' instruments I think that is remarkable consistency.

[anonymous-user]

I have a reasonably high end (based on the price, can't remember the make) monitor,and it is very accurate, I take it with me now and then when I see my specialist, and compare results. I bought a wrist monitor to leave in my track kit, as I have to have a blood pressure check before each race event, it is hopeless, results are inconstant dependent where it is on the wrist, and trying to get it in the right place is not easy, confined to obsolete electrical kit draw now, with all the old mobile chargers.