Monitor And Control Your Blood Pressure

Chapter Three

She then proceeded to wheel the sphygmomanometer towards me. The Sphygmomanometer is a blood pressure monitor. It consists of a cuff that gets filled with air, a hollow rubber bulb which pumps air into the cuff, and a glass tube containing a column of mercury.

She put on her stethoscope. She then wrapped the cuff around my upper arm; she placed the cold stethoscope piece on the artery on my arm just below the cuff and began listening to the pulsations of the blood in my arteries.

Innocently she began to squeeze the bulb. The cuff began to inflate. This applied a pressure on my artery in my upper arm, the blood ceased to flow. The pulsation stopped.

She then continued to release the air in the cuff and the blood continued its flow now in its relaxed state, the sound in the stethoscope became muffled.

All Was Quiet The Measuring Began

All was quiet. She then began to release the air in the cuff. This released the pressure in the cuff that was blocking the blood flow.

When the blood flow began she heard the pulsation. She looked at the level of the mercury and made a mental record of it. That was my systolic pressure, which represents the pressure when the heart is contracting.

She looked at the mercury when that occurred, and made a mental note of it. That was the diastolic pressure, which represents the blood flow when the heart is relaxing.

Recording The Results

She walked over to the chart and wrote down my blood pressure levels, which is the force of the blood against the wall of the arteries, recording the systolic over the diastolic.

This test was an important one as high blood pressure otherwise known as hypertension aside for being a disease in itself, is a major risk factor for Heart disease

Continue here to go to the next chapter.

The next test Having an Electrocardiogram

Control hypertension before it can do more damage!

If you were told by your doctor that you have high blood pressure and you may be at risk for heart diseases don't hesitate, there are many things that you can still do. You can start by learning the six steps to heart health.