Measuring blood pressure for less than a dollar using a phone
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
This measures blood pressure in the fingers. There is no consistent way to translate that to a brachial artery blood pressure, which IS 'close enough' to the aortic valve. No calculations are needed, because the bloods pressure at the brachial artery will be only a few mm/Hg lower than it is at the aorta.
But on the way to the fingers, the blood pressure lowers, and a multitude of factors can influence by how much. To be clear, all of the influences that alter the peripheral blood pressure will alter core blood pressure. But the degree of alteration is going to be far more extreme and unpredictable the farther away from the heart you go.
Sometimes our national guidelines are a little outdated. The ADHD medicine type that worked the best for me is still only approved for quitting smoking (which is why I don’t use it because that means it’s often out of stock since it’s not a “vital” medicine that gets priority stock”) but also goes to show that sometimes we’re a little slow to approve things. So I don’t know if these finger readers are in that category and will eventually become viable, or if they really don’t work. But I do think it’s worth looking into before you rely too much on them.
I had off-book buproprion, not for ADHD but depression and anxiety, from the same psychiatrist from several months before they gave me an ADHD diagnosis, and didn't get my pressure tested then. Funnily enough I found that double the max UK dose (600mg/day, an accidental misreading of the dosage wording after a few months) worked perfectly with my so-called rejection sensitivity and hypermentalisation. Whether those symptoms were in some part generated by ADHD, it is possible, and whether my ASD or ADHD somehow gives me a buproprion hyposensitivity is questionable (as I have heard that ND folk can more often have a hyper and hypo sensitivity to drugs), but it didn't help my attention. I had to stop that when a) the manufacture of buproprion was halted due to detected impruties and b) so I could get to try ADHD meds. It made me very sad because I knew I would regress, I have indeed been emotionally unstable and prone to crises since and broke up with my partner in large part due to this.
Or are do restrictions to the fingers very?
The brachial artery that the parent mentions is located in the biceps by the way.
It may prove useful on some future study relating to it's efficacy on specific needs, where it may be good enough.
So if the figure in the article is correct, this would be very useful for people living alone to quickly get approximate measurment.
My wife did not feel well last year and thought her pulse was going up. I figure I'd reassure her quickly (or notice an issue) with my Note 8.
Unbeknowst to me, some samsung update put the hardware functionality behind some health app that wanted to setup a tracking profile and two factor authentication and my email and my phone and name and details and preferences and goals and 12 point health plan and whatnot.
By the end I was the one with anxiety attack. I'm still livid when I think about it. I'm not a violent or profane man but... I have some thoughts reserved for people who planned, approved and implemented that. Not all evil is big evil. Little evil is evil too (Note for all fellow software engineers here :)
Obviously you wont get oxygenation though.
I think I picked up a dedicated unit finger pulse oximeter for like $20.
FWIU Apple Watch is one product with FDA approval as a medical device (ECG Electrocardiogram) for detection of AFib Atrial Fibrillation and Parkinsons.
Medical device design > Pathway to clearance or approval: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_device_design#Pathway_...
I did buy the separate $20 sp02 / pulse monitor after that episode. She has an apple watch now but I of course have zero confidence / will not trust the kindness of corporate strangers again to allow me access to my own hardware.
i.e., A vegetarian diet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism#Nutrients_and_potenti... :
> Vegan diets tend to be high in dietary fiber, folate, vitamins C and E, potassium, magnesium, and unsaturated fats.[34] However, consuming no animal products increases the risk of deficiencies of vitamins B12 and D, calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids. [34][264]
> The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that special attention may be necessary to ensure that a vegan diet will provide adequate amounts of vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, iron, and zinc. It also states that concern that vegans and vegan athletes may not consume an adequate amount and quality of protein is unsubstantiated. [265]
FWIU, high-red-meat diet outcomes are probably on average worse.
"The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance" (2021) https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Based-Athlete-Game-Changing-App...
You can't use AI to classify and predict e.g. diabetic retinopathy from retinal images unless you have retinal images in the chart, over time.
A capacitive sensor to detect finger pressure and an optical one for the blood flow. Even cheaper than using a scale to detect pressure...
The accuracy of course leaves a lot to be desired.
Not only that, you can monitor it during activity during movement, without requirement to sit still.
So I am really surprised some startup has not come up with a special earbud that also monitors blood pressure via a clip extension and broadcast via bluetooth/ANT+
Would be huge with athletes, especially with an aging population.
Until then...
Thanks for letting us know that you are in fact not a doctor. Because your belief is patently wrong.
Source: I am a doctor.
https://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news/high-blood-pre...
My best recommendation for people is to get a BP cuff and just get comfortable with taking samplings periodically through the day. I take anywhere from 3 to 10 readings a day and over a month or two the data paints a good picture of your situation plus it makes you more comfortable with BP reads.
Is that actually so? Around here, the very first thing which each doctor I know off is going to say after a high reading in such one-off visit is exactly your second paragraph, because they are well aware one-off readings cannot be trusted for a diagnosis and are typically higher because of white coat stress and whatnot.
There's a legion of people out there with high blood pressure who don't feel a thing. This is why doctors employ high sensitivity testing for every single patient: office blood pressure measurements. If you get a normal result, OK. If you get high blood pressure, it could be hypertension so the doctor monitors more closely.
Screening works by testing everyone with simple, cheap, fast tests and selecting those with anything that even remotely looks like a positive result for more elaborate and expensive specific tests.
I already have to piss all the time from the chlorthalidone which costs more than Netflix, though it was developed a half-century ago and is made by the ton. You missed the dehydration signal in my metabolic results and your renal imaging req came up clear but cost $2k.
Can you do anything to help me live because the medical industry is doing a lot to make not living look good, or not being a patient.
Doctors are human and not all-knowing (no matter how some may come across) and the patient needs to be part of their care.
I was pretty sick at that point and bedridden at times so going upstairs had my heart rate meeting Jesus for the first few minutes of activity.
They tried to take me off my medications that could be “raising your blood pressure before you have a stroke”.
I went to a sane office who asked me to continue daily home monitoring and accepts my current pcp’s measurements.
Somehow the drastic intervention in the prior paragraph has ever come up again.
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/some-health-care-professiona...
I don't know the exact details of your case so not responding to that, but routine lipid testing does not need to be fasting even though the test is often marked as a "fasting" test. The only number that is acutely affected is triglycerides. Some labs still call it a fasting test - but we do not routinely advise patients to fast before a lipid screen since the main screening numbers are LDL and HDL.
It gets more complicated with triglycerides. A general sensible approach is that if triglycerides are over 400 on a non-fasting test to repeat with a fasting test.
> The overwhelming majority of "doctors" all have a favorite hammer,
In this case the diagnostic and management algorithm is pretty straightforward, unfortunately not all doctors are that good. Not sure if "overwhelming majority." is the case.
edit: The mentality is boldly duplicitous. When you challenge their diagnoses on their own turf, they are men and women "of science", and you are a fool to yourself to question them, but when the mistakes are laid bare; being discussed inside of a courtroom--see how fast the appellation changes: from "man of science" to "humble practitioner".
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Especially if you’re linking to a pop-health website to support your opinions.
No treatment is risk free. Treatment is warranted when the risk/benefit analysis is favorable.
Depends. If it's high enough and there's other risk factors, it's pretty safe to immediately diagnose it as hypertension.
“Don't drink a caffeinated beverage or smoke during the 30 minutes before the test.
Sit quietly for five minutes before the test begins.
During the measurement, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and your arm supported so your elbow is at about heart level.
The inflatable part of the cuff should completely cover at least 80% of your upper arm, and the cuff should be placed on bare skin, not over a shirt.
Don't talk during the measurement.”
source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tips-to-measure-...
Very elevated readings at the doctors office are probably a sign you should get your own BP Machine and do readings at home, to see if it’s actually an issue when measured correctly.
100% of the time I’ve had initially (mildly) high reading as an adult, I've had a second reading in the office assuring that those are followed (usually, only the “sit quietly for five minutes preceding” is skipped initially), and that's been over a period of 30+ years.
> The exception to this rule is if you have a blood pressure reading of 180/110 mm Hg or higher.
> A result this high usually calls for prompt treatment.
That's what I meant by "high enough".
A single 150 x 90 mmHg reading may be uncertain ground but you don't ignore 220 x 130 mmHg.
One of the nurses was really worried that I had hypertension and kept talking about it. He just needed to chill out, though, and just added unnecessary stress. I literally had a dozen cardiologists and a lecture hall of medical students studying me.
My elbow hurt for weeks after that, from the IV and that ICU blood pressure cuff squeezing down on it every 15 minutes for 5 days straight.
Once you're diagnosed with high BP you can and should self monitor. That'll show the white coat if it is there.
Also BP meds are insanely cheap because.
It's true that white coat syndrome must be accounted for just like all the other factors. Best way to do that is to regularly measure and keep track of your blood pressure throughout the day with your own sphygmomanometer. Sometimes 24 hour sampling may be warranted.
However, this doesn't happen. In US, you check in, sit in the waiting area, then a nurse takes you in, checks weight on the way to the room, then takes bp as soon as you sit. All done in 90 seconds to 2 mins. I thought I had high BP, but was confused by the range of 20+/-, luckily my primary doctor explained the procedure and took my measurement. Now I don't get concerned, I know they are doing it wrong.
I mean, go to a different doctor if yours somehow doesn't know about it. Mine all have. They help account for it by sending folks home with a blood pressure machine hooked up, which you wear for 24 hours. It regularly measures blood pressure - every 15 mintues, IIRC, including at night. In the US, I had a doctor suggest I take it outside of the office regularly so that we could compare. I worked at a pharmacy, so just took it there.
"Pharma companies" aren't there to get on never-ending prescriptions: Curing things gets them fame too. Plus, the "big pharma wants you sick" conspiracies seriously leave out all of the pressure to not have folks on medications for life. Single payer health care plans, governments that administer them, private individuals, and for-profit health insurance companies all would rather not pay for it. I'm not pro big pharma, but I'm also too prudent to believe this.
Do you really believe a for-profit company doesn't want profit?
This is only going to get worse too as people who grew up overweight and not exercising get older.