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It is an alarming statistic, but nearly half of all strokes and heart attacks in the United States are caused by high blood pressure. Knowing that you may be at risk can help save your life. If you currently have high blood pressure, you should alert those around you to be prepared in case disaster strikes. Having the ability to track your historic and current blood pressure levels is critical to keeping you safe and could make the difference if a heart attack occurs.

Therefore, it is important to track your blood pressure on a regular basis. However, many of us leave the measuring of our blood pressure to occur only when we have a doctor’s appointment, which is not recommended, especially if you suffer from high blood pressure. As a result, home based blood pressure monitors are becoming more popular. These home based systems that can be used in the comfort of your own home offer both convenience and the ability to monitor your measurements more closely than the infrequent trip to the doctor’s office.

Microsoft has recently released an application called HealthVault, which is designed to accept and maintain readings from a list of approved home based blood pressure monitoring devices. One of these devices from MicroLife is the 3AC1-AP. This device offers the ability to measure the patient’s blood pressure from home, using a computer with an internet connection. This information is then encrypted and sent to a secure storage location. the data can then be put into a graph or averaged over a period of time to get a sense of the patient’s blood pressure history. This information can reviewed by a health care provider to understand the risks the patient is facing of a heart attack of stroke.

Clearly, keeping track of one’s blood pressure is key to understanding and preventing several health risks. Through the use of home based blood pressure monitors, a patient can get a better understanding of their risks for a stroke or heart attack, as a result of high blood pressure. Through the use of applications such as HealthVault and approved home based blood pressure monitors, we can make use of technology to understand risks and maintain proper health.

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Certainly, one of the critical measurements in maintaining one’s health is measuring one’s blood pressure. The typical person only has their blood pressure measured during scheduled visits to the doctor. Unfortunately, this is not frequent enough, especially for those that may need this measurement to alert them about potentially life threatening illness. This infrequent measurement technique can prove to be deadly, as it is sometimes difficult to determine what can cause high blood pressure. As we will discuss, some of the causes can be temporary and normal, while others may be an unchecked signal that there is potentially something more dangerous on the horizon.

First, we will discuss the temporary or non-threatening causes of high blood pressure. Certain lifestyle choices can give a temporary increase in the blood pressure reading. These include stress, cold external temperatures, and exercise. Clearly, we can see that a visit to the doctor’s office could potentially bring on any of these factors. For example, if someone does not like to go to the doctor’s office, they could feel a certain level of stress. Are you late for your appointment? Well, this could not only cause stress, but could also induce some unexpected exercise as you make your way up a set of stairs to get to your doctor’s office.

On the other hand, a blood pressure reading could be a critical signal of more dangerous health problems, For example, if a blood pressure is high over a period of time, the heart, kidneys, and blood vessels could all begin to show signs of breaking down under the strain. The result could be coronary artery disease, heart attack, or stroke. Therefore maintaining a regular measurement of your blood pressure is essential to monitor the warning signs that a more serious health risk could be coming.

As we have discussed, high blood pressure can be brought on by a variety of factors. These could range from being non-critical to possibly life threatening. Therefore, if your health care provider believes you may have high blood pressure, it is important to possibly increase the frequency of your blood pressure measurements, which would be likely recommended by your doctor. One way to do this, is through the use of a home blood pressure monitor. Certainly, this will take some of the temporary causes out of the list of possibilities (stress, cold temperatures, etc.). In addition, this will allow you to take frequent measurements and average these results out over time in order to provide an accurate reading for your long term health.

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