Be more active in your heart health
Heart health and health monitoring, explained clearly
Active Heart Health helps make cardiovascular health easier to understand, whether you are trying to make sense of a reading, use a monitor correctly, choose a suitable device or simply learn more about your heart health.
Understand blood pressure, heart rhythm and health monitoring with clear, evidence-informed information designed for everyday life
General health education only. Active Heart Health does not provide personalised medical advice.
What would you like help with?
You do not need to know the medical terms before you begin. Choose the option that best matches what you want to understand.
I want to understand high blood pressure
Learn what high blood pressure means, why repeated readings matter and how it is usually identified and monitored.
I need help choosing a blood pressure monitor
Understand clinical validation, cuff size, useful features and what to consider before choosing a monitor.
I want to take better blood pressure readings at home
Follow a clear measurement technique and learn how to collect a useful short series of home readings.
My monitor has shown an irregular heartbeat alert
Learn what irregular heartbeat indicators can and cannot tell you, and understand more about irregular heart rhythms and atrial fibrillation.
I want to understand my heart health better
Start with how the heart works, then learn about factors that can affect heart health and the measurements commonly used to monitor it.
Take better home blood pressure readings
Free Home Blood Pressure Reading Checklist & 7-Day Log
Follow a simple step-by-step checklist to take blood pressure readings at home, then record seven days of morning and evening measurements. You can print the log and complete it by hand, or type directly into the fillable PDF and save a completed copy on your device.
Why I created Active Heart Health
I spent 15 years working in clinical cardiology across the NHS, private healthcare and a tertiary cardiac centre in New Zealand.
During that time, I saw how people could be given blood-pressure readings, test results, unfamiliar medical terms or recommendations without always having enough time to understand what they meant or how they fitted into everyday life.
I created Active Heart Health to make that information clearer and more practical, and to help people feel better informed when thinking about their cardiovascular health or using health monitoring technology.
WHY ACTIVE HEART HEALTH EXISTS
View Ian Murray's professional background and credentials
Your heart matters, and understanding it
is often the first step.
Ian Murray
Founder and Lead Author
Cardiac Physiologist
Explore our heart health topics
Understanding how your heart works
Clear, easy-to-follow explanations of how the heart functions and why understanding the basics can make other heart-health information easier to follow.
Understand heart health risks
Some factors that affect heart health can develop without causing obvious symptoms. Learn about high blood pressure — what it means, why it matters and how it is usually identified and monitored.
Health monitoring devices
Understand commonly used devices that measure or track aspects of your health, what they may be useful for and the limitations to consider when choosing or using them.
Choosing health monitoring devices
Blood pressure monitors, ECG recorders, wearables and other health monitoring devices can provide useful information, but their quality, features and limitations vary.
Active Heart Health explains what these devices measure, how their features differ and what evidence is available to support their use.
For blood pressure monitors, our reviews consider factors including clinical validation, usability, measurement quality, safeguards and other information that may help you make a more informed choice.
How Active Heart Health is funded
Our health information and guides are free to read. Some links to products are affiliate links, which means that if you make a qualifying purchase through those links, Active Heart Health earns a commission at no extra cost to you.
Any paid Active Heart Health resources are clearly identified before purchase.
Affiliate relationships do not change the criteria used to research or assess health monitoring devices.
Understand more. Monitor more confidently.
Active Heart Health provides clear, evidence-informed information about heart health and health monitoring, without unnecessary jargon or alarm.
Whether you want to understand a heart health topic, take more consistent readings or choose a monitoring device, start with the information that is most relevant to you.