TheCarrot.com, provider of life-management tracking and reporting, announced today that use of its hypertension tracker, which monitors blood pressure and heart rate, increased 30% during Heart Month in February 2009. This jump demonstrates that TheCarrot.com’s heart-related trackers-”including stand-alone blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol trackers-”are helping Americans who increasingly want to take greater control of their heart health. TheCarrot.com’s free health and life management trackers can be accessed on the Web or downloaded from the iPhone app store.
The American Heart Association, American Society of Hypertension and the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association recommend routine at-home blood pressure monitoring for people with high blood pressure. TheCarrot.com’s convenient, fun and easy-to-use tools keep track of blood pressure trends, and it is the only site that can correlate these results with other behaviors such as medication use, exercise, salt and fat intake, as well as stress levels to provide insights on behavior changes that can reduce heart-related problems.
Self-monitoring is increasingly being recognized as a vital component in encouraging healthier habits. “Becoming more active in their own care may also motivate patients to take other measures to lower their blood pressure, such as increasing physical activity, reducing salt and following a healthy dietary pattern,” said Daniel W. Jones, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association and vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The Mayo Clinic also encourages self-monitoring, “Taking your own blood pressure measurements has been shown to result in better blood pressure control and greater success meeting blood pressure targets. You gain a stronger sense of responsibility for your health, and you may be even more motivated to control your blood pressure with an improved diet, physical activity and propermedication use.” Additionally, “home monitoring may cut down on the number of visits you need to make to your doctor or clinic” as well as “help you and your health care team make decisions about your ongoing treatment strategy.”
“TheCarrot.com’s unique reporting capability can integrate the broadest range of health and lifestyle trackers available at a single site,” explained Douglas Trauner, CEO and founder of Health Analytic Services, creator of The Carrot.com. “Armed with this information, empowered consumers can more easily stay engaged in transforming their lifestyles to optimize their health and well-being.”
TheCarrot.com releases new health, fitness and lifestyle trackers monthly in response to user requests.
