Are You Measuring Your Blood Pressure Correctly?

During the 1988 song, Roxette tells you to "Listen to your heart / There's nothing else you can do." While there's nothing we appreciate more than love and heart health during February, we're going to have to disagree with the latter part of that lyric.

There's plenty you can do to keep your heart healthy, and one very simple way is to take regular blood pressure readings. However, like in music, you don't want to misread the beat—or it'll throw everything off.

You may already know that blood pressure readings measure the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood. Those readings have a systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number) measurement. Blood pressure levels are classified as follows:

Why Accurate Readings Matter

High blood pressure, or hypertension, puts you at greater risk for many health conditions—two of which are heart disease and stroke. However, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that your arm position when you take those readings could drastically alter the results you get.

For example, having your arm dangling by your side rather than resting on a table or desk resulted in a 6.5-point higher systolic result and a 4.4 higher diastolic reading. Similarly, people who measured their blood pressure with their arms resting in their laps had a 3.9 higher systolic measurement and a 4-point higher diastolic number.

These reading inaccuracies like this could shift you from the normal to the elevated category or from the elevated level to being classified as hypertensive. That could lead to a misdiagnosis or patients taking medication they don't need.

How to Take Your Blood Pressure

So, to make sure you're taking an accurate blood pressure reading, it's important to:

• Sit in a chair with back support, keeping your feet flat on the floor. Sit quietly for at least five minutes before beginning the reading, as physical activity temporarily elevates your blood pressure.
• Place your arm at heart level on a flat surface (like a table) with a slight bend in your elbow.
• Your cuff should be placed around your upper arm, right above the elbow.

Monitoring Your Numbers

If you do get a high blood pressure reading, it may not mean you have hypertension. Factors like stress, anxiety, caffeine, recent exercise, smoking, having a full bladder, high salt intake, certain medications (like NSAIDs) and dehydration can sometimes temporarily skew your numbers.

It's still better to be safe than sorry. The CDC estimates that hypertension contributed to or caused 685,875 American deaths in 2022. So, be proactive!

You should ask your primary care physician to check your blood pressure at least once annually. And if you suspect you may have high blood pressure, they can re-measure your results—maybe over several visits—before making a diagnosis and talking with you about a treatment plan.

What You Can Do to Keep Numbers Low

If your blood pressure is currently within normal levels, that's great! Just remember, despite what Roxette sings, there are many things you can do to keep your heart healthy, including eating a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, sleeping seven to nine hours per night, quitting smoking and aiming for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Which songs you listen to during those workouts is up to you. If you need suggestions, you can check out our Heart Health Playlist.

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