Blood pressure is a measure of the force of blood flowing through your blood vessels, and is a key biomarker for health and longevity. According to Dr. Peter Attia, it is important to measure your own blood pressure at home, as routine doctor office measurements of blood pressure are often inaccurate.
Who Should Monitor Their Own Blood Pressure?
All adults should keep track of their blood pressure, as elevated blood pressure (hypertension) can occur in even otherwise healthy younger people and typically comes with no warning symptoms. Earlier in life men have a higher risk of hypertension than women, but over time hypertension risk increases for both genders with age and eventually equalizes.
How Monitoring Your Own Blood Pressure Benefits You
Periodically monitoring your blood pressure enables you to spot elevated pressure and take care of it promptly. Living with high blood pressure for any extended amount of time can have significant negative consequences for your health. Your heart, brain, and kidneys are especially vulnerable to hypertension related diseases. If you discover that your blood pressure is elevated and you are at risk for hypertension, there are several lifestyle modification and medication options available to address this issue.
How to Measure Your Blood Pressure at Home
Getting an accurate reading can be time consuming, but it’s important to track this biomarker carefully using the following steps:
- Purchase a blood pressure monitor. This can be a manual cuff, which tends to be slightly more accurate but requires training to use, or an automatic cuff, which is easier to use. It’s important to buy a cuff that is sized correctly for your arm. When buying an automatic cuff look for one that has the Validated Device Listing (VDL) criteria for clinical accuracy.
- Watch an instructional video. This will help ensure you are familiar with the process. Here is a video on using a manual cuff, and here is a video on using an automated cuff.
- Sit in a relaxed pose with your back supported for five minutes before taking a measurement. Do nothing during this time – no screens, talking, or other activities.
- Position your arm on a support at heart height. The further your arm is from this position, the higher your blood pressure will read.
- Uncross your legs. Crossed legs raise blood pressure readings.
- Attempt to manage other factors which can raise blood pressure, such as lack of sleep, being sick or in pain, a full bladder, stress, and recent exercise.
- Take three measurements, five minutes between each measurement. This means measuring your blood pressure will take 15 minutes total, including the initial five minute rest period before the first measurement.
- Measure your blood pressure in this way twice a day, for two consecutive weeks. This should take you 30 minutes total per day. This is necessary because blood pressure readings can vary quite a bit due to many factors, so an average over time gives you the best measurement.
- Average all of the results, with separate averages for systolic (the first number of the measurement) and diastolic (the second number of the measurement). You should now have a fairly accurate blood pressure measurement. The healthy range for blood pressure is a systolic reading of less than 120 and a diastolic reading of less than 80. If your blood pressure reading is elevated, work with a doctor on the best options for treatment.
Why Measuring Your Blood Pressure At Home Works
As you can see from the steps above, taking an accurate reading is a time consuming and careful process. Routine, quickly performed doctor’s office measurements of blood pressure are simply not going to be accurate, and patients often additionally suffer from “white-coat hypertension”, where stress levels and thus blood pressure are elevated due to the environment of the hospital or doctor’s office. Instead, being able to relax at home and take your time with the measurement process allows for far greater accuracy.
We Tried Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
We found it to be a large commitment to spend 30 minutes a day for two consecutive weeks spent on the task of blood pressure monitoring, but the exercise was much more tolerable when we used the five minute resting periods to practice meditation. We used an automatic cuff for ease and convenience. Dr. Peter Attia does not specify how frequently one should go through the whole two week measurement process, but we assume that it depends on the level of risk an individual faces for hypertension.