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Measuring blood pressure at home gives you
the privilege of monitoring your blood pressure level at your own will.
It can also help in your treatment, if you maintain daily records of the
blood pressure readings. For all this, all you need to have is an
aneroid monitor or a digital monitor.
The
aneroid monitor is a device with the help of which, blood pressure is
measured. It comes attached with a dial gauge and an in-built
stethoscope. To measure blood pressure with this device, the rubber bulb
is squeezed to inflate the cuff. Self operation of this device is
possible. It is also not expensive.
Steps for using the aneroid
monitor are as follows:
First of all, place the ear pieces of the
stethoscope into your ears. Then, keep the stethoscope disk inside the
crease of your elbow. Put the cuff on your left arm at the same height
as your heart. Now, squeeze the rubber bulb to inflate the cuff. Keep
inflating until you cross the systolic reading. At this point, the
arteries are squeezed to the level of obstructing the flow of blood.
Now
deflate the cuff slowly, while listening carefully through the
stethoscope. As you deflate, blood will start flowing again with a
'swoosh' sound. The pressure recorded at this sound, is your systolic
pressure.
Keep deflating the cuff and listening carefully. The
point at which you can no longer hear your heartbeats is called your
diastolic pressure.
Both the systolic and the diastolic readings
together make up your blood pressure.
In spite of its usability,
an aneroid meter is a bit puzzling or difficult to use. Getting used to
listening to the 'swoosh' sound could take some time. And its rubber
bulb is hard to press. In addition to this, it can get damaged easily
and once damaged, it would no longer give accurate measurements.
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