Blood Pressure Charts
It is one thing to realize that you need to keep an eye on your blood pressure and to take regular blood pressure readings but is quite another thing to make sense of the numbers you get. This is where a blood pressure chart can come in handy.
Blood pressure charts come in all shapes and sizes and the chart shown below is simply one example.
When you take a blood pressure reading you will get two numbers, a high number (known as your systolic pressure) and a lower reading (known as your diastolic pressure) but these raw numbers can seem a little bit meaningless. However if you draw a line between the high number on the left of the chart and the lower number on the right of the chart you will be able to see at a glance where your readings fall in relation to normal blood pressure.
This line is of course merely a rough guide and an indication of whether or not you should be concerned and consult your doctor. The blood pressure chart is not in itself a true diagnostic tool and is no substitute for the professional opinion of your doctor. Nevertheless, it can be a very helpful guide and is certainly a lot easier to interpret in many cases than the raw numbers.
The Daily Blood Pressure Chart
Standard blood pressure charts are fine for getting a quick snapshot of your blood pressure for one specific set of readings but for many people what is really needed is a way monitor the progress of their blood pressure over a period a time. In this case a daily blood pressure chart is the solution.
Many modern blood pressure monitors will store your daily readings over time and these can then be used (often with a simple computer software program) to produce a visual chart of your readings.
However, although this method is easy enough, you do not need to go to these lengths and can simply produce your own chart.
Simply take a sheet of graph paper and draw out a scale on the vertical axis running from about 50 up to 190. Then, along the bottom horizontal axis mark off the dates each day for the next couple of months.
Each day after you have taken your blood pressure readings you can then plot these onto your own blood pressure chart and, if you are suffering from high blood pressure, will hopefully be able to see your readings dropping in response to medication or changes in your lifestyle and diet.
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