Monitor your home blood pressure monitor.
According to a recent Canadian study from the University of Alberta, home blood pressure monitors are 100 percent accurate only about 30 percent of the time. And that’s not good, the researchers point out, since high blood pressure is a leading cause of death and disability in the world.
In the small but revealing study of 85 folks with HBP, the researchers identified what causes the problems with the readings: Occasionally, it’s a person’s ability to run the device properly. It also can be the one-size-fits-all design; the same cuff is used for both men and women, but in the study men’s readings were more accurate. Arm shape and size can make the difference.
Nonetheless, if you have HBP, it’s important to keep track of how it’s doing. So, how can you check the accuracy of your device? First, bring your athome monitor with you to your next doctor’s visit and check it against the doc’s machine. Second, have your pharmacist instruct you in proper usage, and then try it out right there and compare its reading to the pharmacy’s in-store BP monitor.
Q: My son’s soccer coach is trying to improve the team by having them do what he calls vision drills. Does this stuff really make sense for a sports team?
If done right, vision training is a smart move. To use it effectively though, your son’s soccer coach should consult with a sports vision specialist so that each team member can be given vision tests. The tests can assess visual acuity, eye tracking, eye alignment and dominance, depth perception, processing speed and eye-hand coordination. That allows the eye doctor and coach to determine if an athlete needs targeted vision training to improve skills such as anticipating the trajectory of a bouncing ball, keeping track of what’s happening peripherally or quickly changing focus from near to far objects and back again.
Sharpening up those abilities can really improve an athlete’s performance. A new study in a European journal called Science and Medicine in Football looked at the visual prowess of Premier League soccer players. It found that not only did these elite athletes have superior vision skills, but players in different positions had unique strengths. For example, “Defensive players ... exhibit faster accommodative vergence [seeing how plays develop] than offensive players ...”
You see such visual superiority in the NBA, too. When Steph Curry brings the ball up court, he looks like he’s staring off into space, but he sees everything through acute peripheral vision; plus he has sharp depth perception and unbelievable hand-eye coordination.
In any sport, doing visual exercises can improve athletic performance. But it’s also essential to make sure players’ eyes are protected. As chair of the medical advisory committee of The United States Squash Racquets Association and former captain of the U.S. Squash team, Dr. Mike showed the USSRA Board pictures of eye injuries until they mandated protective goggles for squash matches.
So support your son’s coach, Quentin, and learn about the benefits of maintaining eye health.