Diet for people with high blood pressure

I read of the complaints about the USB connector, and while it’s not a standard mini-USB connector, but I don’t find it to be a problem. It’s certainly better than what I’ve seen on some digital cameras and cell phones.

Build quality is very impressive, and the Mulitple Average Mode, where the monitor takes 3 readings then averages them is very useful. I can confirm that the Irregular Heartbeat Detector works quite well. I have a rather ragged pulse wave and every single time this monitor’s found it. A friend tried it and it didn’t flag them as having an irregular heartbeat, so it’s reading correctly. Despite my irregular heartbeat, it still manages to get the correct blood pressure & pulse readings so far. Not sure what the lowest it can read, but my pulse was down to 46 and it still read properly.

The software which comes with the unit is quite good, but is obviously meant for a physician’s office, not home use. It appears that the original design was that the physician’s office would get the software and the patients would get these BP monitors and bring them in for their appointments and upload them then. Once you’ve navigated your way around the software, it is quite good, giving you a few other features like Mean Arterial Pressure and Pulse Pressure, along with graphs, histograms, etc. The BP monitor is good, but the software makes it great.

**Update Nov 2009*** Well, I’ve had this unit for 3+ years now, still going strong. I wish they had software for Mac and wish it had a standard-sized USB port, but otherwise still very satisfied with this BP monitor. Over those 3 years I’ve had some very low BP readings and yet this monitor still produced accurate readings. The cuff inflation of this unit is a bit uncomfortable at times, but it’s never left a bruise like some of the drug store & hospital BP cuffs do to me. Probably due to my not-so-healthy body.