Digital Blood Pressure Monitors

Digital blood pressure monitors have become so affordable and easy to operate and read that there is no reason at all for you no to check your blood pressure regularly.

Why You Need a Digital Blood Pressure Monitor for Your Home

The American Heart Association and other medical groups recommend that people with hypertension or suspected high blood pressure routinely monitor their blood pressure.  Home-monitoring of your blood pressure, using a quality automatic digital monitor and blood pressure charts, is an easy, inexpensive and excellent step you can take to improve your overall health.

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The right home blood pressure monitor varies from person to person, so make sure to check out all the alternatives before choosing the one that is right for you.

Use our easy 7-step selector to narrow down the choices to find the one that best matches your needs and your price range.

Finding the right home blood pressure monitor can be incredibly confusing.  There are so many available now that narrowing you choice down to even a dozen can be a challenge.  For some people price will be the most important factor, for others it will be a specific feature set or possibly the choice can be narrowed down by choosing a particular brand name.

Use the dropdown menu options below to specify exactly what you need, just skip any that you are unsure about or don't care about and then click the "Find" button and you'll be whisked off to a page containing your specified shortlist of home blood pressure monitors.

What is Blood Pressure and Why is High Blood Pressure Dangerous?

Blood pressure is the force exerted on the walls of your arteries by your blood during cardiac contraction and relaxation (or the beating action of the heart).

High blood pressure, when the pressure on the arteries is greater than it should be, is a dangerous condition

In addition to being dangerous, high blood pressure is very common and the numbers are increasing alarmingly every year:

• About one out of three U.S. adults—31.3%—has high blood pressure.
• High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease. Heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the United States.
• More than one in five (22.4%) people with high blood pressure don't even know that they have it. ^1,2 

Fortunately, high blood pressure can be treated with diet and drugs. 

But only if it is detected.

Even if you are NOT currently diagnosed with high blood pressure, if you have prehypertension, or another condition that could contribute to high blood pressure, such as diabetes or kidney problems, home blood pressure monitoring could help your doctor diagnose high blood pressure earlier than if you have only infrequent blood pressure readings in the doctor's office.

Home Blood Pressure Monitors are Easy to Use

We've all seen the old manual method of checking blood pressure. A clinical trained doctor or nurse uses a stethoscope along with an inflatable arm cuff connected by a rubber tube to a gauge that records the pressure. Knowing exactly when to check the gauge by listening to the blood flowing in your arm, takes much skill and training.

Luckily, today's home blood pressure machines take all of the hard work -- and guesswork - out of the proceedure by doing all of the work for us. All models differ slightly, of course, but in effect you wrap the blood pressure monitor around your upper arm or wrist and turn on the machine. That's it.  The cuff or wristband will inflate to the proper pressure automatically and your systolic and diastolic pressures, as well as your pulse, will appear on the large, easy-to-read digital display.  Then you can simply consult the included blood pressure charts to learn your optimal pressure and determine if you need to have a doctor do further tests.

Choosing the Right Blood Pressure Monitor for You

Before you decide on a blood pressure machine, it's important to know the right technique for checking your own blood pressure and to find a good home blood pressure monitor that fits your needs.

Digital blood pressure monitors offer the convenience of being automatic with easy to read digital numbers so you can see exactly what your pressure is immediately.

The easiest way to learn to take your own blood pressure readings is to ask your doctor or nurse to teach you. If you have already purchased a home monitor, take it with your and have them show you how to use your blood pressure monitor correctly.

Quality brands to look for and consider when shopping for a digital blood pressure monitor include Omron, Microlife, ReliOn, Lifesource, Lumiscope and Panasonic.

The Omron HEM 705 CP Blood Pressure Monitor comes with a built-in printer included which prints out your pulse rate, diastolic and systolic blood pressure along with date and time each and every time that blood pressure is taken.

Remember, always consult your physician for specific information about your blood pressure.

1 National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2008. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2008.

2 Lloyd-Jones D, Adams RJ, Brown TM, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2010 Update. A Report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 2010;121:e1-e170.