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Do it the right way

Rest before checking blood pressure

ACCURATE READING A five-minute rest helps

Want lower blood pressure? Sit quietly for five minutes before it's taken — on a regular chair, not on an examining table, with your feet on the floor. The result can be a systolic blood pressure reading about 14 points lower, potentially a big enough difference to avoid a diagnosis of hypertension, a new study reports. The study, by a team of nurses from the University of Virginia Health System, was presented at a conference of the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association.

The guidelines are not always followed, especially in medical settings that do not specialise in treating high blood pressure. When the researchers took readings from 100 elderly patients on either chairs or examining tables and with and without a wait, they found a 14-point average difference in the systolic reading, the upper number. This could mean that a patient whose blood pressure is fine could walk away from a doctor's office with a misdiagnosis.— NYT

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