Omron Blood Pressure Home Monitor

Having a blood pressure home monitor is a good health investment for those who constantly need to monitor their blood pressure. A couple of years ago, I have bought one for my mom so she doesn't have to go to my cousin's house everyday to have her blood pressure checked.  I bought her the wrist type.  It seems she's not using it that much and I figured she probably wants the visit to my cousin better. Hahaha!  Well, at least she gets some exercise walking back and forth.  Anyway, I didn't take back the BP monitor although I was contemplating on it because now I have to monitor my own blood pressure having been diagnosed with essential hypertension.  

A few months back, I make my daily trips to the company dispensary just to have my blood pressure taken.  When the nurse uses the analogue type, I get good readings, at least not going over 120/90 mm Hg.  Then I have to manually get my pulse or heart rate.  Sometimes when the doctor is there, he's the one who checks my blood pressure using the digital type monitor.  And it is a puzzle to me that whenever he uses that, my blood pressure goes high at 140/100 mm Hg.  Although I don't feel nervous or jittery, I am beginning to think I may have a white-coat syndrome after all (even if the doctor doesn't wear his white coat hahaha!) 

Keeping Track of My Vitals With Handylogs and Soundtells

Yesterday, I was on a hunting spree for free trackers to aid me in monitoring my vital numbers, particularly my blood pressure.  After all, if I want to reach my goals, I need to keep track of my progress.  Ever since my doctor advised me to monitor my blood pressure, morning and evening, I kept track by recording the readings on paper.  But I keep misplacing my list hahaha!.  So, I figured I can't possibly misplace my office computer so I made an Excel file.  Then later, I could print the file to give to the doctor, instead of a tattered piece of paper with my handwriting.

I wanted to spice things up by using more fancy trackers, but that's just me.  Anyway, I found this freeware from Soundtells.  Check out the screenshot below.

They have other nifty trackers in the site.  Seeing a graphical trending instead of numbers in a row helps one to better analyze his or her progress. This program has a printing option that I find very useful.  Cool, right?

Of course, I can't always have my desktop PC around wherever I go.  I thought I could also use an application that I can download on my Blackberry phone.  I found one called the Handylogs Heart - Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Tracker.  What I have now are two data logs.  The downside is that since they are different programs, I can only synchronize data manually.  Oh but that's not a big deal for me.  What's important is to keep track and better monitor my blood pressure.

I'm sure you can find fancier trackers online.  These two work for me, for now.  Whatever ways you do it, as long as you keep track, that's what's more important.