How To Use A Heart Monitor For Maximal Health Benefits

Introduction

If you are looking to improve your health then you need to greatly consider getting a heart monitor. A heart monitor can help you with a number of things. This ranges from just taking a simple heart rate to analyzing complex patterns with your hearts intrinsic activity. The use of this information can help to do a number of things including simple maintenance, diagnosis of diseases, and prevention of diseases. While these are greatly beneficial to health, few people use them the right way. This is usually not an issue of compliance, but an issue of a lack of education on how to properly use a heart monitor for maximal health benefits. To ensure maximum effectiveness please refer to the simple steps below that will provide long-term health benefits and potentially life-saving information.

Steps For Proper Heart Monitor Use

  • Learn Proper Placements
  • Monitor For Abnormalities
  • Determine Appropriate Response To Findings

Step #1 – Learn Proper Placements

The first and most important step is to learn the proper placements of the electrodes or the sensor. This will ensure that the data is highly accurate and reliable. Without proper placement, you will not be able to gather any information about what is actually going on internally. This applies to both finger sensors and things as complex as ECG sensors that use chest electrodes to gather very detailed information.

Step #2 – Monitor For Abnormalities

Once you have figured out how to operate your heart monitor you need to learn how to read the information for abnormalities. The first thing that usually indicates heart abnormality is a drastic change in heart rate or in the blood oxygen levels. When heart rate goes above 140 beats per minute or the partial pressure of oxygen drops below 92%, then you should think an abnormality is going on.

Step #3 – Determine Appropriate Response To Findings

Once you have determined that there is cause to think there is an abnormality, the next step is to asses the situation to be able to enact the appropriate response. Sometimes things are very simple and all you have to do is adjust something at home. Other times things can be serious enough to require emergency medical care. Either way, the use of this greatly impact health in a positive way. By using these steps you will be able to get full use out of your heart monitor for maximal health benefits.