THERE was uproar among friends of a relative of mine when she announced that she was going to buy a home blood-pressure monitor. They all thought that it was a sign of hypochondria, rather than of common sense.

It is estimated that undiagnosed and untreated high blood pressure accounts for 62,000 deaths every year — deaths that, had the patient and doctor known about the high blood pressure, could have been delayed if not prevented. With a home blood-pressure monitor it is easy for someone to take his own blood pressure at different times of the day and on different days of the week. Only by doing this is it possible to get a picture of someone’s true blood pressure record.

For many years I worked in a clinic with a male nurse. Sometimes we used to take his blood pressure before the clinic started, at other times we would take it at midday, or sometimes after he had coped with suffering humanity all day. The blood pressure varied alarmingly. After a few difficult patients it would be in the skies and stay there for some hours.

Unfortunately, he was treated at the staff centre, where the surgery hours were always early in the morning before work and when his blood pressure was low. The staff doctor never believed that our nurse truly had high blood pressure, but one day the nurse proved his point by dying suddenly of a coronary thrombosis.

Dr Chris Steele, the north country GP and resident doctor on ITV’s This Morning, was speaking last week — it was Help a Heart Week — on the importance of diagnosing high blood pressure early. Steele, never a man to encourage hypochondria, is strongly in favour of home blood-pressure monitoring. He suggests that this is especially important for all those over 45, those who are overweight, and for those with a family history of arterial disease, diabetes or raised blood cholesterol levels.

He recommends that having taken their blood pressure on a regular basis, they should then show their readings to their GP for advice. The guiding principles of treatment are now that blood pressure should not be allowed to creep up with age, and that it should be kept lower than was previously thought — preferably under 130/85, although for those who are at increased risk of heart troubles even lower levels than this are desirable.

Blood pressure monitors are available nationwide from Argos, Index, leading pharmacies and department stores — prices range from £29.99 to £99.99.

E-mail Dr Thomas Stuttaford your questions on blood pressure