Blood Pressure Diary: Daily Blood Pressure Log for Monitoring BP at Home

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Your blood pressure naturally goes up and down throughout the day and night, and it’s normal for it to go up while you’re moving about. It’s when your overall blood pressure is always high, even when you are resting, that you need to do something about it.

The NHS has a handy tool to show where your blood pressure is on a chart. What counts as high blood pressure? Our fortnightly Heart Matters newsletter includes the latest updates about medications and treatments, as well as support for healthy eating, staying active and your emotional wellbeing. I’d like to sign up What causes high blood pressure? Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in your arteries. Your arteries are the vessels (tubes) that carry blood from your heart to your brain and the rest of your body. You need a certain amount of pressure to get the blood moving around your body.For some people, a cause of high blood pressure is found. This is known as ‘secondary hypertension’. Diastolic pressure: this is the lower of the two numbers. It shows how much pressure is in your arteries when your heart relaxes between beats.

How your high blood pressure is managed depends on a range of things, such as your health goals and the stage of your condition. The healthcare team at your GP practice will help you create a plan to reduce your blood pressure. When you have your blood pressure measured, the reading is written as two numbers. The first is when the pressure is at its highest (or systolic pressure), and the second at its lowest (or diastolic pressure). Record additional readings at home using your own blood pressure monitor(called home blood pressure monitoring, or HBPM). You can also ask your GP practice if they are part of any schemes where you can loan a blood pressure monitor from them. For example, your reading might be something like 140/90 mmHg, which you would say as “140 over 90” (mmHg is a unit for measuring blood pressure). How is high blood pressure diagnosed? If your blood pressure is high or very high, your GP will usually offer you medicines on top of lifestyle changes.

By looking at all your blood pressure readings over a few days, your GP can work out what your 'average’ blood pressure is. If you are worried that any medicine or remedy might affect your blood pressure, ask your doctor or pharmacist about it. Get in touch with our expert cardiac nurses through our Heart Helpline, which is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. They can give you information and support about heart and circulatory diseases, as well as their risk factors. Your arteries are normally stretchy, so they can cope with your blood pressure going up and down. But with high blood pressure, your arteries lose their stretchiness, becoming stiff or narrow.