Measuring your own blood pressure: time for the N-of-1 trial?

In today's world, where the pursuit of a healthy as well as a long life is everyone's goal, the importance of managing your own blood pressure has become an increasingly obvious. With an upsurge in patients over 80 experiencing heart failure linked to poorly controlled blood pressure from midlife, it's crucial that individuals, particularly from the age of 40 upwards, pay greater attention to their blood pressure readings to foster a healthy aging process.

When blood pressure hovers at the borderline, many patients hesitate to start medication. This reluctance has spurred interest in non-pharmacological methods to lower blood pressure, aiming to delay the need for pharmaceutical intervention as much as possible for long-term benefits.

One challenge in advocating non-pharmacological approaches is the lack of robust data from randomised controlled trials. Unlike pharmacological studies, these methods don't involve drug patents, which often leads to less scientific scrutiny. However, this shouldn't discourage individuals from exploring lifestyle and dietary changes to see if they can manage their blood pressure more effectively without necessarily requiring more medication.

With the advent of accurate home blood pressure monitors, individuals can now undertake personal experiments to assess the impact of various interventions on their blood pressure. This "No of 1" experiment is gaining popularity, offering a personalised approach to managing blood pressure.

The approach and methodology is discussed in this podcast. Read more details from the blog article below. 

https://www.scvc.co.uk/heart-health/measuring-your-blood-pressure-at-home-using-a-home-cuff-monitor/