Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Latest Stories

News >  Health

People’s Pharmacy: Why your blood pressure reading ignores real life

Q. You have repeatedly criticized health care workers for making mistakes when measuring blood pressure. No one has answered my question of why a “proper” blood pressure reading requires me to assume a state that I exist in perhaps 1% of the time during an average day. That is, sitting in a chair, feet flat on the floor, arm level with my heart on an armrest, empty bladder and perfectly quiet for five minutes.