Did you ever have a twinge or a weird sensation and, before long and largely in your imagination, it developed into something life-threatening and horrific? Yup. Me too.
About a year ago, just after I started running again, I had a series of strange headaches, a bloodshot eye and some tingling. Obviously it was serious. Then I had my blood pressure taken at the doctors and it was high.
Oh my goodness. By the time I got home and consulted Dr Google, I had all manner of conditions I’d heard of. Half an hour later I’d added dozens of new ones.
A couple of subsequent tests were high too. I almost certainly had a catastrophic case of White Coat Syndrome.
Thankfully, I recovered and everything is normal.
However, in the meantime, I was sent an Ozeri Cardiotech Digital Blood Pressure Monitor (model BP2M) to review.
It’s really simple to use as it straps around the wrist and you just press the go button.
There’s a slight tightening sensation and in a minute or so your blood pressure is revealed on the screen.
You have to have the monitor at the same level as your heart – when I didn’t do this the measurement was quite different which, I think, shows how sensitive it is.
The monitor also has a traffic light system so if your blood pressure is dangerously high the screen goes red, orange for “oooh, look out” and green for “everything’s fine”.
Another feature shows you if you have an irregular heart beat.
It also records the measurement so you can track the blood pressure measurements of up to two people, which is what proper doctors would do if there were any real concerns.
This is an easy-to-use tool that will allow you to track and monitor your blood pressure regularly at home.
Recommended for hypochondriacs everywhere.