Advantages: Helps keep a check on your health.
Disadvantages: Price maybe, could get a little paranoid about health.

...I thought I would have a change from all the heavy stuff I have been writing about lately, and write about a little machine I bought about six months ago. The Omron MX3. It is a blood pressure monitor. All my life my blood pressure has been wildly erratic. The highest measured blood pressure I recorded was 180/100. High yes, but I had just spent 12 minutes on a treadmill having a heart test. Anyway it was back to 140/80 within 5 minutes. They told me that was great. Anyway when I go to the doctors it varies between 157/95 being the highest and 117/76 being the lowest. Generally though it is about 140/80-85 I have researched this a little and I have realised that your blood pressure can vary and change very rapidly. I have confirmed this by visits to the doctor and a medical friend of mine who uses a different machine to the one... Read review

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Advantages: see op
Disadvantages: see op

...High Blood Pressure. Blood pressure is one of the main concerns that affects out society. So why is there such concern? Why are so many are there so many strokes that may arise form ignored high blood pressure? Why does it cause so many deaths? To help you to appreciate what is Blood Pressure, we need to know why this is very important knowledge to know. Blood pressure is the physical influence that pushes the blood against the walls of the arteries. Blood is needed to carry its supply from the heart to all of the body’s tissue and organs. Every time this happens, particularly when you are resting it pumps out its blood to the arteries at a rate about 60-70 times a minute. When your doctor measures the heart, using a blood pressure it is measured with an instrument called a sphygmomanometer... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to follow guidance with good explanations
Disadvantages: You do have to put the effort in when you have read it

...Around a quarter of all adults will develop high blood pressure in their lifetime. In the UK doctors are taking this problem seriously and more and more people are being diagnosed because of better monitoring (and because the government in incentivising doctors to look for it.) Sadly I am one of the people with blood pressure on the high side but I am trying to find a way to control it without going on to medication for the rest of my life. I have tried a few 'snake oil' remedies which didn't work, and I am still keen to find something which will help which is why I ordered this book from Amazon recently as if there is a 'Natural Way' to control blood pressure I want to know what it is. In his introduction James Scala says that about 85% of all high blood pressure can be controlled by diet, food and lifestyle. He is also points... Read review

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Advantages: See op
Disadvantages: Possible heart attack victim!

...I thought blood pressure problems happened to other people, not me! When I started having cluster headaches (readers may like to read my opinions) the doctor said I had a high BP reading but then it did go down to normal. Blood pressure is the pressure inside your arteries - little tubes that carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Do not mistake these tubes for veins - veins are the blue tubes that you can see underneath your skin. You can feel your artery by putting your fingertips on your pulse at your wrist. If you can feel it beating then that means the artery is beating. Apparently blood pressure was not diagnosed until the early 1900's and the people most likely affected are those of us who live in the western world. Blood pressure is using monitored by wrapping an inflatable band round your upper arm... Read review

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Advantages: Once the Doctor knows about it, you get lots of other checkups
Disadvantages: Taking lots of tablets and getting dizzy

...It may a little known fact but grapefruit and some beta-blockers do not mix well. I had been taking Atenelol but started getting some side effects, which made me visit the Doctor. He slowly reduced the Atenelol until I was off it all together. I went on holiday and my friend who I was staying with, assuming I was still on medication saw me drinking grapefruit juice and cautioned me against drinking it as it has detrimental effect on some beta-blockers. I told her I was off the beta-blockers and thought no more of it. On my return I had to go for a BP check. My blood pressure was high and I was told to make a further appointment later in the week. Anyway to cut a long story short my blood pressure continued to be high so the Doctor decided to switch me to calcium beta-blockers ' nifedipine'. To my amazement I was told... Read review

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