As the Mayo Clinic notes, measure your blood pressure at least twice a day, in the morning and evening, when you begin exercising. Wait until you wake up and are ready to start your day. Take before breakfast, before exercise, or before taking medication. Also avoid caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol for 30 minutes before reading. Blood pressure varies throughout the day and may be slightly higher in the morning. Experts also suggest taking repeated readings 1 to 3 minutes after the first reading, and recording the readings if the monitor loses track of them.
The best way to do this is from Luke Laffin, M.D., a daily living, cardiology and hypertension specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. “Blood pressure fluctuates a lot throughout the day, so testing around the same time each day is most likely to give you useful data,” he says. “Testing once a day does not provide you or your doctor with the same kind of insight that testing multiple times a day at consistent times can.”
Find out your phone number! As noted in Heart and Stroke, blood pressure includes low risk (120/80), medium risk (121-134/80-84), and high risk (135+/85), which may require medication and lifestyle intervention. There are three categories: +). Adjustments to lower the numbers. However, if you have diabetes, your blood pressure should be less than 130/80.