The last time I was at a doctor's office, they wanted a urine sample and literally I had not sat back down for long enough to get settled into the seat before they strapped the collar on and took the reading.
On the other hand, I disagree with the article. It's essentially idealizing all the ways to get a lower blood pressure reading, but if in your day to day life, you are never in this zen state of being (lol), then your real everyday blood pressure is not as low as this artificial environment causes, and your real everyday blood pressure is what counts.
Apparently I'm very important to someone, because I have a team that monitors my BP, taken regularly. BP monitor has a cellular link to them. Mostly they harass me that they think my BP is too low, then I appease them by talking to my PCP who tells me it isn't too low if I have no negative symptoms like dizzy/weak/etc.
I should clarify that I was not put on BP monitoring for low blood pressure but rather for high, but it's seldom high so... it doesn't hurt to do it I suppose, but it's not something I'd clear out a large chunk of time to do. I did, do that in the early stage of it, but then realized, it doesn't make that much difference.
Anyway, I do agree a bit with some of what the article stated. I sit up straight with my back against a chair, having been sitting with minimal activity for 5 minutes or more. I remain still while self-talking the reading, I don't take it yet if I need to urinate.
I keep my legs straight and feet on the floor, on a bare arm, but there's no way I would wait 30 minutes after any of the activities the article listed, I don't have 30 minutes downtime to be a vegetable for that! Taken from both arms? No, unless you are actually taking two readings one after the other every time. If you are not, then always take it from the same arm. How exactly would you even remain in your zen motionless state for 30 minutes to switch the BP cuff to the other arm? Switching it would take you out of that uber-relaxed state more than merely talking less than 5 minutes earlier!
You can't take the readings that far apart > 30 minutes + longer for supposedly prohibited activities, and think that gives you an average. I don't think the article author has much real world experience in this topic. It's highly unrealistic.
Arm is always near level with my heart. I grabbed a cardboard box of the right height to put my arm on to accomplish that. I never take two readings unless the first one looks wrong. The longer term trend of my BP and how I am feeling, give me a pretty good idea if the reading is accurate enough.
Contrary to some sources that claim that you can't "feel" when your BP is high, I absolutely can. I have a harder time guessing how low my BP is, can't really predict between a range of about 100/60 to 125/75, but if it's 130/80 or higher, I can always predict a high reading.
Lastly they provided a misleading "Blood Pressure Categories" image, showing the category vs BP reading, which is only appropriate for a younger age group that normally isn't monitoring their BP at all, so what was the point of that?
I don't think that Beth Mole should be a senior health reporter. PHD in microbiology isn't the qualification appropriate for the articles she's writing, if this one is any evidence. There's too many "must's" and silliness like "an appropriately sized cuff"... as if anyone thought that an inappropriately sized cuff would do as well?
ON THE OTHER HAND, I somewhat agree with what might have been the premise of the article, that it is quite possible that many people are misdiagnosed with high blood pressure, that a doctor can see this as a cash cow to just get people in the office long enough to take a BP reading and prescribe more meds. At the same time, most people aren't active enough and eat too much sodium, so I revert back to an earlier statement that you just take the reading when it fits into your life and whatever it is, is the blood pressure you have at that moment in time, and your everyday real BP is what counts. Prep for the best reading possible and you're just kidding yourself.
If you hadn't guessed it, I'm getting a bit tired of taking BP readings. I feel for those who struggle with high BP but I don't think that extra hoops to jump through, is necessarily beneficial.