Keep track of your health by monitoring blood pressure, other health indicators
by Rory Visco, https://www.facebook.com/, https://www.facebook.com/BusinessMirror/ · BusinessMirror- Rory Visco
- October 24, 2024
- 4 minute read
THE Mayo Clinic, touted as the largest integrated, not-for-profit medical group practice in the world, emphasizes the value of regularly checking blood pressure, an imperative element in the management of high blood pressure or hypertension.
It said that self-monitoring can help in early diagnosis of high blood pressure and is “especially important for people with elevated blood pressure or other conditions that could cause high blood pressure, such as diabetes or kidney problems.”
It added that to know “whether your lifestyle changes or medicines are working is to check your blood pressure regularly. Keeping track of blood pressure changes at home can help you and your care team make decisions about treatment, such as changing the dose or the medicine,” and may even help cut healthcare costs by reducing the number of medical consultations.
Prevention is key
THE key word is all about prevention, and “that’s one of the reasons why we want to do blood pressure monitoring so that we will know how to prevent possible issues regarding our blood pressure,” says Dr. Lyien Patricia Pascual, PTRP, a medical doctor and popular content creator known as “Dr. Lyien Ho,” in her talk during the launch of the latest smartwatch device from Huawei, the Huawei Watch D2.
Blood pressure is the pressure that the heart exerts against the arteries or the blood vessels, and monitoring blood pressure is important primarily when there are changes brought about by one’s lifestyle.
She said that around 12 million Filipinos have hypertension and the number is still increasing, while around 65 percent of them are aware that they have it and 37 percent are already undergoing treatment. The good news is that 13 percent have reached their target blood pressure level.
However, Dr. Pascual said they follow certain criteria to know if a person is hypertensive or not, like a person cannot be deemed suffering from hypertension in just one visit to the hospital or clinic. She said it should be two to three consecutive visits and consistently registering high blood pressure readings before one can be considered as hypertensive.
Types of hypertension
DR. Pascual also discussed some of the more common types of hypertension. One is the “essential” hypertension, but this is highly different from the book definition of essential. It is called “essential” because it is primary. “In the medical world, when we say primary, most of the time the cause is unknown or there’s no direct cause. It can be due to weight, vices, etc.”
There is the secondary hypertension, or those with an underlying disease or “co-morbidity.” This means the high blood pressure is due to certain ailments like diabetes, high cholesterol, liver issues. The third is the “white coat” hypertension or “white coat syndrome,” where the patient’s blood pressure is elevated whenever they visit a doctor’s clinic, but becomes normal when they get home, most likely caused by nervousness when facing a doctor.
But that doesn’t end there, Dr. Pascual said, because the patient will be told to undergo necessary blood tests as well, a complete work up, she pointed out, because hypertension does not only affect blood vessels but can also affect other organs of the body.
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
THERE are many ways to monitor blood pressure, such as the in-clinic blood pressure monitoring, the at-home monitoring through the use of digital blood pressure monitors. Then there is what is called “ambulatory” blood pressure monitoring or ABPM. Dr. Pascual said it is called as such because monitoring can be done even while doing certain activities or movements, unlike the other two where the patient has to be immobile or stationary.
With ABPM, she said the patient is actually encouraged to do physical activities, like going back to their usual work or routine while the ABPM device, usually the size of a portable music player that was popular in the late 70s to the late 90s, is attached to the body 24 hours a day. However, she said some people found attaching the device to the body uncomfortable, especially when they are working since the device does its “pumping” motion every 30 minutes.
“Uncomfortable as it may be to some, this is very important because this is one of the ways for us to know what type of hypertension a person has. With this, we can trace if hypertension happens during physical activity, or blood pressure is low if resting or sleeping, or if it’s high even while sleeping,” she said.
She emphasized that ABPM will determine if a patient really has hypertension, and is absolutely a preventive measure since it can help the doctor find the right medication. “It’s preventive, therapeutic, and also helpful not only for the doctors but also for the patient.”
“Watch” your health
ACCORDING to Jose Emmanuel Ramos, Huawei senior product expert, it is important to take action for your health through constant blood pressure monitoring, and that is where the Huawei Watch D2, the first ever smartwatch in the Philippines with ABPM capabilities.
Ramos said the Huawei Watch D2 has six sensors compared to the previous four for improved accuracy. When asked by BusinessMirror in terms of accuracy, Ramos said though it is not a medical device, when they compared it to an actual ABPM, the accuracy is at about ±5 percent.
With the Huawei Watch D2, Ramos said blood pressure monitoring, including the measurement, tracking, and monitoring of eight other health indicators such as heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, skin temperature, ECG, vascular elasticity, pulse wave arrhythmia, and sleep apnea detection, is now made possible via a smartwatch designed for comfortable, all-day wear. However, Ramos reiterated that the watch is a non-medical device that should not replace diagnosis and treatment from medical professionals.
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