How Did Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor Help Me Tackle High Blood Pressure

Paula — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 03:01:54 +0000

In September of 2014 I had my first high blood pressure reading ever. It was frightening and frustrating too. So I set about fixing it. I worked out more, I went gluten free. I added more exercise. I banished salt, ate differently, walked more..and I did all that consistently for two years and still nothing much changed. My blood pressure went up and down. But sometimes it was as high as 150 over 92. About two months ago a Withings wireless blood pressure monitor arrived. And that’s when things finally turned around for the better. Before Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor: Month after month I used to check my blood pressure at the kiosks set up in various pharmacies. Often it was the middle of the day, or as I was literally fielding a phone call from the kid’s school. One time one of the kids was calling begging to come home and I literally had the cuff around my arm. That reading did not go well. Talk about high blood pressure! You are supposed to remain calm and still and quiet when taking your blood pressure. There were times I raced over to the Rexall pharmacy near my house right after a solid workout, or a yoga class. I assumed yoga would lower my blood pressure. It did not. And so I would return every few months to my doctor and he would do a reading because I reminded him to, and it was sky high. He was never that worried. We will monitor it, he said. Take your blood pressure regularly, he said. And I did. That last visit, I asked him about medication because I know my mother and one of my uncles both had to take blood pressure medicine. My doctor warned me that was not the route he wanted to take. “Once you are on blood pressure medicine you are on it for life,” he said. I am a Mom. I am also a person with a complex health history. As a teen, just entering grade nine I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an incurable inflammatory bowel disorder also thought to be an autoimmune disorder. At times I have been very ill with that and hospitalized repeatedly. I have been much better since having children. I tell you this because I know what it’s like to have a body that doesn’t work the way you want it to all the time. It’s brutally infuriating. Anyways, when my Crohn’s Disease was very active and acute my blood pressure was so low that I was prone to anemia and feeling faint. So really I had a history of low blood pressure right up until 2014 when some sort of switch flipped and it was high over and over and over. But my doctor was insistent, no medication. He advised me to get a home blood pressure monitor. I had no luck finding one until the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor arrived for use at home. Up until then, I was stymied. I worked out. I lost five pounds. My blood pressure came down ONE TIME when I had a reading at Rexall last year. I posted how giddy I was after that and shared the print out to Instagram and someone kindly advised me the machine was wrong and I should still worry about high blood pressure. That was not helpful. This is the best blood pressure reading I have had in months. #food #family #fun #health #summer #activity #healthyliving #love #pilates #fitness #healthyeating #happy A photo posted by Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr) on Jul 28, 2015 at 6:39am PDT The Withings wireless blood pressure monitor arrived and I set it up. It connects super simply with your iPhone and iPod. The instructions are easy to follow. Download the Withings Health Mate app, turn on the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor (there’s a silver cylinder that rests near inner arm when the cuff is wrapped and ready to go. The button is there.) Make sure that your Bluetooth connects to the blood pressure monitor and then follow the instructions. The Withings Health Mate app will also track your steps each day and store information, such as what your last reading was so you can get an idea over time of whether your blood pressure is coming down or going up. The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor will tell you the best times to take a blood pressure reading. First thing in the morning and last thing at night. It reminds you to stay still with feet on the floor and arm resting on a surface so that it is close to your heart. I can’t even tell you how thrilled I was to see my first NORMAL blood pressure reading. The thing is first thing in the morning before I eat and have coffee and put out a million fires at work, then my blood pressure is Normal. At night, right before bed, it is good too. The entire process will take maybe five minutes out of your day. The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor is medically approved and also monitors heart rate. It has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA and is compliant with European medical device regulations. It is also medically approved in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A few words about the packaging of the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor package. The packaging is brilliant. It’s a sturdy folding green and white box that acts as a storage unit or a makeshift case for the monitor. The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor was exactly what I needed. My doctor was right that I should get a home blood pressure monitor. His theory was also that everyone’s blood pressure rises just by virtue of being at the doctor’s office. I guess that was clearly true in my case. I almost always had to race from work with kids in tow when running to the doctor’s office, so I was pretty much already always stressed when I got there. Then, in addition to that, I would get more frustrated and stressed out being there because I had a feeling the readings would be high each time. That was a ridiculous cycle that couldn’t be broken. Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor: The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor works beautifully to help people manage their health. It helped me lower my blood pressure and now I am less worried and stressed and frustrated which frankly also helped me to maintain lower blood pressure. The EXPERTS agree – In an 18-month project with the American Medical Group Association’s Measure Up/Pressure Down® campaign, hypertensive patients using the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor saw blood pressure control rates improve 30% overall. Doctors shared that the device was useful in helping their patients control blood pressure at home. — American Medical Group Association Playing around with @withings wireless blood pressure monitor today. Sharing a post on how this finally helped me fix the high blood pressure drama here. #love #health #technology #bloodpressure #tech #gadgets #witeless #ldnont #happy #fitness #instahealth #instafitness my steps can always be better and it doesn’t log fitness classes unless you sync fitness pal app and add manually too. But nonetheless the blood pressure part is so worth it! A photo posted by Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr) on Mar 25, 2016 at 12:59pm PDT Oh and I almost forgot one of the best parts about this gadget also is the fact that the app with store your data in the cloud and then you can download it and share it easily with any digitally connected doctor. In fact your doctor doesn’t really even need to be digitally connected because you can just show him or her your data on your app. I received a Withings Wireless Blood Pressure monitor and occasionally work with Withings. My opinion is all my own and this post is 100 % truthful and based on my extremely positive experience with this product. The Withings Wireless Home Blood Pressure Monitor is an example of technology being used to make your life and health better. That is my favourite application for wireless gadgets. You can buy these Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitors at Best Buy, Amazon and in the Apple Store too. These retail for $129.95 US and they are more than worth it! The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor gets my highest rating of $$$$$ out of $$$$$. In fact I’d like to give it higher because it’s that good. I think it just destroyed my rating system. Get one for a relative who has high blood pressure. Get one for yourself. Use it and take charge. I am including an Amazon affiliate link here in event anyone wants to buy one from Amazon right now:

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The Best Fitness Gadget I Found in 2014 and It is Waterproof!

Paula — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 14:49:18 +0000

In 2014, as always, I had great intentions to boost my fitness routine and become even stronger. And I did for half the year. Then I swam laps every day in our pool during the months where the weather permitted and I felt great about that. But when September hit somehow school meant that my workload increase also impacted my fitness level. That has to change this year. That will be a goal for me to sustain my routine throughout all of 2015. Despite the rocky exercise routine and the peaks and valleys of fitness and health issues this year, one thing consistently worked well and made me happy. I am naming this gadget, The Misfit Shine, the Best Fitness Gadget of 2014. For me the Misfit Shine was a high motivator to get moving. It forced me out of bed many mornings to get moving. So what is the Misfit Shine? Misfit Wearables SH0HZ Shine – Activity and Sleep Monitor, Retail Packaging is a fitness tracker that also monitors your sleep and connects with your smartphone to sync all the data you need to stay motivated and make improvements. Misfit Wearables SH0HZ Shine – Activity and Sleep Monitor, Retail Packaging is available on Amazon and it’s also available at Best Buy. It is priced right and easy to use. It is reliable, waterproof and lightweight too. It goes with me everywhere and I never worry about taking it off. It works fine in the shower and in the pool too. I love how hardy it is and I like the look of it also. The Misfit Shine has a sleek, light design that you can make work with most wardrobes. The Misfit Shine comes in a bracelet or a clip on version in one package. It is about $100.00 which is a decent price for this gadget which looks like a bracelet. It comes in a host of colours and I have already had two of the different colours to test out here. I had the copper colour for a time as shown above in affiliate link and then I received the blue shade as well. I like that it has a simple and light design and I love that it follows me into the pool when I do laps. The actual electronic portion of the Misfit Shine slips in and out of a watch band style bracelet. It remains secure and I have never had any issues with it falling out. Misfit Wearables SH0HZ Shine – Activity and Sleep Monitor, Retail Packaging works well to connect daily to your smartphone. All you do is tap the face of the monitor and it lights up and then syncs. So the fitness part has been super effective for me. I would swim ten laps and then stop, feeling tired (don’t be overly impressed because I am super slow but I like to swim so I could do that for hours) I would stand at edge of the pool and tap my Misfit Shine and realize that I had only added a few more dots (meaning I hadn’t hit my goal yet) and so I would continue swimming for another 15 minutes to see if I could move the measurement in my favour. To start with, when you unbox the Misfit Shine you set up a target number of steps for the day. Then by the end of the day Misfit Wearables SH0HZ Shine – Activity and Sleep Monitor, Retail Packaging tells you whether you reached the goal or not. It makes me happy to see the results when I have hit my goal, or exceeded my goal. It makes me hop back in the pool or get moving more to push the meter up in my favour. My only negative comment to the Misfit Shine is that it doesn’t measure my yoga activity. So when I do yoga class and stand mostly in one spot stretching and doing flexible poses that work my muscles and build strength, it doesn’t capture that. If there was one improvement I suggested for this gadget it would be that. Make it measure yoga and activity based on heart rate too. Or perhaps there could be a setting you flipped on when doing yoga types of activity. It’s still worthwhile because I love that it makes me walk. Literally. I do laps every morning because it makes me feel better throughout the day. I received product in order to facilitate this review. My opinion is all my own. This post contains affiliate links.

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How Did Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor Help Me Tackle High Blood Pressure

The Best Fitness Gadget I Found in 2014 and It is Waterproof!