What is blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the force your blood exerts against the walls of the blood vessels carrying blood around in your body.
The heart pumps the blood and every time it beats it pumps the blood into your blood vessels called arteries.
What is systolic blood pressure?
Your blood pressure as force acting against the inner wall of the arteries is highest when your heart beats and pumps blood. This is called systolic pressure.
What is diastolic blood pressure?
When your heart is at rest and just being filled with blood, between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is called diastolic pressure.
Expectedly, the Systolic pressure is bigger than the diastolic pressure and reads a higher number than the diastolic blood pressure because while the heart is working during systolic, it is at rest during diastolic.
What does the numbers on the Blood Pressure reading mean?
A blood pressure measuring machine can read and display the amount of both systolic and diastolic pressure.
So your blood pressure reading displayed on the BP measuring machine are two numbers representing both Systolic and Diastolic blood pressure readings.
They are measured in mmHg which means milimetre length of mercury thread pushed up through the tube by the pressure from your blood. The Hg in the unit represents the chemical symbol of Mercury in chemistry.
Usually the systolic number comes before or above the diastolic number. For example,if the BP measuring machine displays 120/80 after reading your BP, it means your systolic blood pressure is 120mmHg and the diastolic pressure is 80. This 120/80mmHg is the optimal blood pressure in most healthy individuals.
What is High Blood Pressure?
You have high BP if your blood pressure readings show that
Your systolic is 140 or higher OR if your diastolic is 90 or higher
Some care givers may consider you to have high blood pressure if you have other heart risk factors and
Your systolic is between 130 and 139 ORYour diastolic is between 80 and 89
But if your blood pressure reading is above 180 /120 then your BP is dangerously high and require immediate medical attention.
For children and teens, the health caregiver compares the blood pressure reading to what is normal for other kids who are the same gender, age, weight and height.
What is low blood pressure?
This is not as common as high BP in most individuals. It is called hypotension and the reading for low blood pressure is when the Systolic pressure is less than 90mmHg and diastolic pressure is less than 60mmHg( BP reading of less than 90/60).
In healthy people, low blood pressure without any symptoms is not usually a concern to health caregivers and does not require treatment but low blood pressure can be a sign of an underlying problem that needs to be investigated and possibly rectify,especially in the elderly patients where it may cause inadequate blood flow to the brain,kidney, heart and other vital organs.
How is high blood pressure diagnosed?
High blood pressure usually has no easily noticeable symptoms. So the only way to find out if you have a high BP is to get regular blood pressure checks by yourself if you can or preferably from your health care provider.
Usually, your caregiver will use a clinical gauge, a stethoscope or electronic sensor, and a blood pressure cuff. He or she will listen to the sound caused by the pumping and resting heart then take two or more readings at each of the separate clinic appointments before making a diagnosis.
What are the different types of high blood pressure?
There are diferent types of high blood pressure but the 2 main groups are primary and secondary high blood pressure.
Primary, also regarded as essential, high blood pressure is the most common type of high blood pressure among human population. It develops over time as you get older and your organs work less efficiently.
Secondary high blood pressure is usually not caused by aging vital organs but caused by another medical condition or use of certain medicines. You are mkre likely to correct the high BP after your caregiver treats the health condition that caused it or the moment the medicine causing the high BP in you is withdrawn and replaced with one that does niot present High BP as side effect.
Why do I need to worry about high blood pressure?
When your BP remains high for long and over time, it causes your heart to pump harder as the pressure builds up in your arteries and act like a negative pressure against incoming blood from the heart and this makes your heart work overtime. If it is not detected and treated soon enough, high BP will possible lead to serious health problems such as stroke, heart attack,kidney failure and sudden death in some instances.
Can I have Blood Pressure Tests For Free?
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