Wrist blood press monitors

[Hellymummy]

How reliable are shop bought wrist blood pressure monitors??? I've got readings all over the place!!!!!!!!!

I thought you measured them on your upper arm? Unless i'm thinking of something else. In which case I don't know :-)

You can buy wrist ones too which i did! Just wondered about reliability!

In my experience, they can produce readings that are far from accurate. Machines need to be calibrated correctly and can be influenced by various external factors. The only accurate way to take a blood pressure is to do it manually, but this is something not even health care professionals have time to do all of the time. Your blood pressure can fluctuate throughout the day depending on whether you are standing, sitting, lying, stressed, hot, cold (to name but a few). My advice for home blood pressure monitoring is to take it at the same time each day in the same circumstances and compare these, rather than compare how it changes through the day. If you are concerned with the readings, many nurses at GP surgery's can do blood pressure checks. Unfortunately, although these machines can be useful for those with blood pressure problems, they can also cause concern when they don't function as they ought to.