Healthy Living
Monitoring Blood Pressure at Home Can Be Tricky: Here’s How to Do It Right American Heart Association News -- Knowing your blood pressure is a basic part of good health. But monitoring it at home can get complicated. "It sounds easy – you buy a device, smack the cuff on your upper arm and push a button, right? It's not so easy," said Dr. Daichi Shimbo, co-director of the Columbia Hypertension Center in New York. High blood pressure is a common condition in adults that's associated with "really bad consequences," such as heart attacks, strokes and dementia, Shimbo said. To diagnose and track it, doctors often ask people to check it at home. But even professionals can get tripped up on the proper procedures for The top number in a reading measures systolic pressure, the force against artery walls when the heart beats. The bottom number, diastolic pressure, measures that same force between beats. Dr. Karen Margolis, senior research investigator at HealthPartners Institute in Minneapolis, puts it this way: "The top number is when your heart is squeezing. The bottom number is when your heart is relaxing." If you're using a stethoscope, where a heartbeat sounds like "lub-dub," the "lub" is the squeeze, and the "dub" is the relaxing. The original measuring devices used mercury-filled tubes, delineated in millimeters. So blood pressure is expressed in millimeters of mercury. Modern digital monitors don't use mercury, but the principle is the same: A cuff around your arm cuts off blood flow in the artery inside your elbow. As the cuff is loosened, the "whoosh" of blood starting to flow again provides the systolic reading. When the noise stops, that's the diastolic number. home blood pressure monitoring. Here's help with some of the basics. What exactly do those numbers mean?
Looking for a Fun Way to be More Active?
Come join us for this fun, engaging and healthy activity! A FUN, AFFORDABLE WAY TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Bingocize (offered in person) The Katie , 600 S. Country Club Rd., (Fitness Room)
Aug. 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25, 30, Sept. 1, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29, Oct. 4, 6 Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9 – 10 am Donation Fee: $40 (covers your supplies) for a bi-weekly class for 10 weeks (20 classes total) To Register: https://bingocizeaug22.eventbrite.com or call Jennie, 520.305.3410
Bingocize® is an evidence based program that combines exercise and health information with the familiar game of bingo, which has shown to be a great, fun way to get seniors moving and socializing. Your participation can lead to improved and/or maintained mobility and independence as it is adaptable and beneficial for all ranges of physical and mental ability. The overall goals of the program are to help older adults improve and/or maintain mobility and independence, learn and use health information
focused on falls reduction to promote wellness, socialization and connectedness.
This program is offered by the Healthy Living Department of PCOA
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July 2022, Never Too Late | Page 17
Pima Council on Aging
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