Should you switch from a paper blood pressure tracking to a log app ?
Do you know how many different paper blood pressure logs are sold by Amazon? I counted 20 only on their top search page. They come in different colours and print quality and their price varies from $3 to $9.
This shows that there is a market for blood pressure logs. Which is a good thing. Everyone with elevated blood pressure should be tracking their readings. This helps to understand what activities/treatments impact blood pressure positively and negatively. They also are an excellent tool to use with your doctor while discussing a hypertension treatment plan.
The not so great thing is that paper blood pressure logs are not convenient to use. They do not motivate their users to track blood pressure regularly. Also getting meaningful insights from them is quite difficult, especially over longer time periods.
This is where modern technology comes to help. If you have an elevated blood pressure and you are a regular smartphone user, then getting yourself a blood pressure log app is a non-brainer. There is a good selection of blood pressure apps available these days for both iPhone and Android. The best thing is that most of them provide basic functionality for free. Here are the 5 best blood pressure log apps based on user feedback.
Important: As of the time of writing this post (February 2022) none of the mobile apps can measure blood pressure without an external blood pressure monitor. At this time Apple Watch cannot measure blood pressure either. This means that you need an external blood pressure monitor to get your medically valid BP readings.
1. Qardio, www.cardio.com
Qardio manufactures a set of health monitoring devices to read your blood pressure, weight and even take your ECG. Qardio provides a nice app which collects the data from all these devices and helps to monitor your overall heart health.
The good thing is that the Qardio app allows you to enter blood pressure inputs manually. This means you can use your current blood pressure monitor if you do not want to purchase their monitoring devices. Qardio is compatible with Android and iPhones and you can pull the data from Google Fit or Apple Health.
Pros:
Compatible with Android and iOS
Supports both Google Fit and Apple Health
Tracks activities
Cons:
Built primarily to support Qardio monitoring devices
2, Blood Pressure Diary, www.appbrain.com/app/blood-pressure-diary/com.bluefish.bloodpressure
Blood pressure diary is one of the most popular apps of this kind on Android. It has one of the best ratings (4.8) based on over 63,000 reviews.
Pros:
Very simple and easy to use
Easy to read graphics
Provides a lot of statistics
Cons:
Android only app
3. Blood pressure monitor, www.taconicsys.com
This app allows you easily manage your health data: blood pressure, weight, temperature, and many others. Good chart visualisation. All vital signs are graphically presented. Shows how vital signs are affected by consumed medication.
Pros:
Many data fields for comprehensive health tracking
Provides many health insights: impact of food, medications
Easy to sync the data between different devices
Cons:
The amount of information can be overwhelming
All data should be entered manually
4. Blood Pressure Monitor Checker, www.feeltracker.com
Good basic diary with tables and graphs for tracking blood pressure. Shows users key things that affect their blood pressure. Allows to share data with family and health providers. This app includes fully searchable results.
Pros:
Simple and clean interface
Syncs the data with all devices via iCloud
Automatic backups
Cons:
May be confusing when it comes to connecting to BP monitors
Full disclosure. My team has developed this app based on my own experience with fixing high blood pressure without medications. The major difference between BreathNow and other blood pressure apps is that it allows not only to log blood pressure, it also provides a set of calming activities to actually lower it: breathing, meditation, yoga and more.
BreathNow also measures user's heart rate and stress level with a phone camera. In order to get a track your blood pressure readings you need to use an external blood pressure monitor. Then perform calming activities, measure your blood pressure or heart rate again and see which activities delivered best results. BreathNow is a great blood pressure app for Apple Watch.
Pros:
Log your BP and heart AND lower them without medications
Simple and clean interface
Your health data stored securely in Apple Health
Easy connection with external BP monitors through Apple Health
Cons:
Currently available for iPhone only
SUMMARY
There are many blood pressure log apps available for iPhone and Android. Read customer reviews and check out the blood pressure apps with excellent feedback. Best blood pressure apps include substantial free functionality. If you log your blood pressure already, the next step is to explore apps which help to lower blood pressure with natural tools like 478 breathing exercise, IMST breathing exercise, box breathing, meditation apps to lower blood pressure. Many people managed to fix their hypertension altogether with the help of these tools and got off medication completely.