With so many people dying every year due to high blood pressure, it is only essential that people begin to learn how to take blood pressure. This is the only possible thing that you can do in order to find out any impending signs of hypertension. As statistics have shown, about 30% of people who have high blood pressure did not even know that they had it.
It is important that at least one of the members of your family knows how to take blood pressure. You can even initiate in learning the step-by-step procedures as to how to take blood pressure.
Before anything else, the first step that you have to do as to take blood pressure is to prepare all the necessary tools. Along with the other BP apparatuses, the Sphygmomanometer is the most important one that you need to have. If you don’t have it, you can easily get one in a drug store near you.
For the patient’s part, wear loose fitting clothes before getting your pressure readings so that it can be easier to lift up the sleeves when placing the cuff on the arm. Also, if the patient has just gotten back from doing something strenuous, make him rest for at least five minutes in order to calm his system.
While seated in a comfortable position, the next step as to how to take blood pressure is to put the arm on a firm, level ground. Preferably, in this case, put the arm on a table. Then cuff it with the device about an inch above the elbow.
Keep in mind that when cuffing the arm, it must not be too loose or too tight. Ask the patient if he is still comfortable with the way you applied it.
After that, the next step that you need to do as to how to take blood pressure is to check the pulse. Still, the main thing here is to be gentle. Place your index finger and your middle finger unto the bend of the elbow of the cuffed arm. Never use any other finger.
A common mistake that people do to take blood pressure is that they use other fingers like the thumb to check on the pulse. You’ll be placing your fingers right on top of the brachial artery. By then, you’ll be feeling some slight beating bulges on the vein.
After locating the brachial artery, put the diaphragm of the stethoscope on top of it. Then tighten the screws of the bulb and squeeze it quickly until the scale reaches 160. In other instances, you can stop the pumping once the gauge reads 30 points higher than when you last hear a beat from the artery.
Once you have reached these numbers, slowly unscrew the bulb to let the air out of the cuff. Let it settle for about five points per second. This is the crucial part as to how to take blood pressure. Look at the gauge and then listen to the beats through the device.
Take note of the gauge level where you first heard the beating. Continue this until the sound fades off. The first sound that you heard will be the systolic level and the last one is the diastolic level. Write down the numbers and then remove the cuff from the arm. The normal rate of blood pressure is usually at levels not going beyond 120 for systolic and 80 for diastolic.
If you want to learn how to take blood pressure, simply follow the steps mentioned above. You’ll be saving some money and perhaps even a life once you’ve gotten the hang of it. It does require some practice, so if you feel uncomfortable taking blood pressure this way, then you can purchase a safe and reliable Omron blood pressure monitor. These really require no practice and provide very accurate results.