Doctors say that even if you know you have high blood pressure (hypertension), you may not understand the value of checking it often with a reliable home blood pressure monitor.

Using a home blood pressure monitor can be especially helpful if you’re trying to lower your blood pressure through diet and exercise, or with the help of blood pressure medication as prescribed by your doctor.

Cardiologists often recommend that individuals with hypertension take a blood pressure reading daily. There are several benefits.

* It reminds you that maintaining a normal blood pressure range is important for preventing heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

* You can see if your blood pressure is starting to creep back up, which often happens.

* It will help you and your doctor determine how well your blood pressure medication is working (if you’re taking blood pressure medication, of course).

Use your home monitor to check your blood pressure at the same time every day.

According to the American Heart Association, it’s best to use an automatic, cuff-style, upper-arm monitor. The cuff should inflate automatically and give a digital readout.

Wrist monitors are okay if your arm is too large to fit into an arm cuff. Accuracy may be an issue however, because the reading may vary depending on the position of the arm and wrist during measurement.

Blood pressure monitors that you put on your finger are not considered reliable.

The Houston Chronicle online edition, chron.com, recently mentioned three home blood pressure monitors that have a good track record.

Microlife Advanced Digital Upper-Arm Blood Pressure Monitor with Irregular Heartbeat Detection, Model 4104/3BT0-AP. Cost is $74.99

One of the benefits of this model is that gives you a warning signal if there’s an irregular heartbeat. It also stores up to 99 readings with date and time.

Omron Ultra Premium Wrist BP Monitor with PC Software, Model HEM-670IT. This monitor is a little more expensive at $119.99, but comes with an important capability: a sensor confirms positioning of the monitor at heart level for a more accurate reading. You can also transfer readings to your computer.

LifeSource Talking Auto-Inflation Blood Pressure Monitor, Model UA-767T. This one sells for $134.19. It’s a good choice for anyone with impaired vision. This monitor gives blood pressure reading and pulse in two ways: on a large digital display and as an audio announcement.

Approximately 75 million Americans have high blood pressure. About 3.5 million of those who have hypertension are kids. All are at increased risk for a heart attack or stroke.

Recent research also indicates that there’s a connection between high blood pressure and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

In other words, there are plenty of good reasons for lowering high blood pressure. A home blood pressure monitor is one of the tools that can help you do it.

Got hypertension? Cut down the amount of carbs in your diet and you’ll stand a good chance of lowering your high blood pressure.

While this will not come as earth shattering news to many of the already-health-conscious, they’ll be happy to know that their suspicions have been confirmed by a recent study.

The study showed that overweight or obese individuals who cut down significantly on carbs in their diets lost about the same amount of weight as those who reduced fat intake and took certain weight loss drugs.

The study also indicated however, that those who avoided a lot of carbs also lowered their high blood pressure.

The research team led by William S. Yancy Jr. of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina studied participants with common conditions like diabetes and heart disease. In similar previous studies, participants were overweight or obese volunteers who were healthy except for a high body mass index.

People with certain health issues usualy weren’t recruited for weight loss studies, Yancy said.

Yancy and members of his team tested 146 patients. Some received instruction on eating a low-carbohydrate diet. These started out by eating fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrate daily.

Other took 120 mg of a weight loss drug called orlistat three times a day and ate a lower calorie, lower-fat diet.

After almost a year, the low-carb group had lost about 9.5 percent of their body weight, compared to 8.5 percent for the orlistat group. By itself, there wasn’t a significant difference. Both groups also showed some improvement in their blood cholesterol levels.

But those on the low carb diet experienced about a 6 percent drop in their systolic blood pressure and a 4.5 point drop in their diastolic pressure (the lower number).

In contrast, there was almost no blood pressure reduction in the the orlistat group: 1.5 (systolic) and 0.4 (diastolic).

According to Yancy, the two “fairly powerful weight loss treatments were equally effective, and one of them was more effective for lowering high blood pressure,” Yancy said.

Those in the orlistat group were more likely to report gas, bowel incontinence, and diarrhea than those in the low-carb group. Orlistat works by blocking the body’s absorption of fat from food so people who use it must reduce their fat intake or risk unpleasant side effects like gas and even incontinence.

Related information is available by clicking on blood pressure foods, and foods that lower blood pressure.

Vitamin D may play a role in maintaining healthy blood pressure and preventing kidney problems, heart disease and diabetes, according to an article in the February 1 edition of the New York Times.

The article cited recent research that indicates vitamin D may be a “super nutrient” that can help not only those with high blood pressure, but can also prevent kidney disease and a host of other health issues.

Vitamin D is made naturally in the human body through exposure to sunlight. It’s also available in foods like fish and fortified milk. Supplemets are available too.

At this time, there’s been little research however into how much vitamin D is optimal. However, a new study is planned that will examine the benefits of vitamin D in older adults. The study will include both men and women in their 60s. It will focus on ways vitamin D can help prevent kidney and diabetes problems, reduce the need for blood pressure medications in those with hypertension, and prevent heart disease and cancer.

If you’re interested in learning more about the study, click on www.vitalstudy.org.