The words ‘mobile’ and ‘blood pressure’ in the same statement seemed strange to me so I asked to see this device from what is now Nokia but they are perhaps better known as Withings who have been making these sort of health devices for years.
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You should always take your blood pressure reading ‘at rest’ which for most will mean while sitting and also in ‘normal’ circumstances once you been sitting for a few minutes.
So the ‘mobile’ here means that the results are stored on your phone or Tablet. Taking readings at different times of day, before and after meals and exercise can often help your doctor or nurse solve what is causing higher or lower readings.
While I am – as regular readers will know – old, an even older lady of my acquaintance had a fall and while she was badly bruised and of course shaken she did not break anything. Then just after recovering from this nasty event she did it again, same thing. It turned out that after getting up quickly her blood pressure was plummeting and what she was actually doing was collapsing hence why she never actually broke any bones.
Once her nurse had the figures from reading taken just after getting up from sitting or even getting out of bed the problem was resolved with medication.
Of course if the reading were done with a corded blood pressure device it is unlikely to have been solved so easily so a portable offering like this one from Nokia can help.
High blood pressure is often put down to overweight and tablets help to keep it in check but they can possibly accentuate the problem from rapid getting up.
The tube is round at 15cm long and 3.5cm across it weighs 384 grams. The wrap is 35cm long and fits through itself and is held in position over the tube and your arm.
A lot of the weight is the four ‘AAA’ batteries that send the information to your phone.
The unit has just a single on/off button on one end with a green LED showing when on.
The unit is operated from within the App – downloadable from the iOS or Android store. Once installed and you have entered some basic information press start and then you notice the unit tightening on your arm and you can watch the whole process – it takes around 30 seconds – take place. You then get a reading of ideally around 120 over 80 with a heart rate of maybe 60. Whatever the reading you also get a word or two like ‘optimal’ ‘normal’ high normal’ or ‘hypertensive’ to mention just four. If the reading is ‘normal’ for you then fine you can close the App if not then wait a few minutes and repeat.
No need to remember to turn the unit off as it turns off after three minutes of inactivity.
While it is designed for upper arm use I also got successful reading above the wrist.
It is of course best used on the bare arm but I found it worked over a shirt while two layers gave a slightly false reading.
The App keeps lots of information and also shows graphs so you have all the information you need to show your doctor or nurse but do keep records of ‘what was when’ for unusual reading.
The Nokia BPM+ is available from Amazon for £109.95 with free delivery.
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