What is Blood Pressure?
You need to know. Blood is carried from your heart to all parts of your body via your arteries. Blood pressure (B/P) is the force exerted by your blood against the walls of the arteries. You suffer from high blood pressure when your heart must work harder than normal to pump blood through your circulatory system.
Symptoms of high blood pressure
You can’t feel high blood pressure. You only know if you have high B/P if you use a measuring device. Hypertension is the medical term used to describe high blood pressure.
How Do You Measure It?
Blood pressure is determined by having a health professional put a cuff around your arm. The cuff is first squeezed, and then pressure is released. The readings are determined by when the health person can hear your blood pulsating. It is recorded as two numbers, one on top of, or over, the other. For example 120/80.
- Systolic blood pressure.
Each time your heart beats it pumps blood into your arteries. This is when the pressure is at its highest. It is called systolic blood pressure and is the top number of your reading.
- Diastolic blood pressure.
When your heart is at rest, between beats, blood pressure falls. This is called diastolic blood pressure. It is the bottom number of your reading.
Blood pressure changes during the day. It’s lowest while you’re sleeping and increases when you’re active. The more active you are, the higher the pressure is likely to be. Feeling nervous, excited, angry or under stress can also cause the pressure to rise.
An inexpensive wrist blood pressure monitor is available at Amazon.com or elsewhere online
A wrist blood pressure monitor is affordable (under $40), readable (large digital display), and clinically tested for accuracy. With this device, you can check your blood pressure every day at home.
What’s Unhealthy?
Up until 2009, if you asked anyone, including doctors, what they considered a normal or desirable adult blood pressure to be, 120/80 would have been the most frequent response. Not anymore. According to the new JNC-7 guidelines, 120/80 puts you in a new disease category called “pre-hypertension” and at increased risk for heart attack, stroke, or kidney disease. The medical recommendations for rectifying this potentially deadly disorder are the usual: lose weight, avoid salt and sodium rich foods, exercise regularly, stop smoking reduce stress (and take B/P reducing drugs if necessary).
However, we all know how difficult it is to achieve these goals, much less maintain them. And even if you do, the results are not that rewarding, even for people with blood pressures of 160/100 and higher. When sitting or standing still, it should be lower than 120/80. If higher than this for several readings, you may have high blood pressure, pre-hypertension, or even hypertension. Hypertension typically means that your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher. Pre-hypertension is when your B/P is above normal, but not yet high enough to be called hypertensive.
Know if you have a problem
There are no physical symptoms of high blood pressure, which is why it is sometimes called the silent killer.
Check your blood pressure frequently. Once you know where you stand you can do something about it. Many people can control it without having to resort to medication.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure (hypertension) is a serious health concern that can cause heart disease and increase your risk of a stroke. It is especially dangerous because hypertension often has no warning signs or symptoms.
Blood pressure levels from the American Heart Association
The standard for measuring blood pressure is in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). The classifications in the table below are for people who are not taking antihypertensive (blood pressure-lowering) drugs and aren’t acutely ill. When a person’s systolic and diastolic pressures fall into different categories, the higher category is used to classify the blood pressure status. The diagnosis of high blood pressure is based on the average of two or more readings taken at each of two or more visits after an initial screening.
Classification of blood pressure for adults age 18 years and older
| Category | Systolic (mm Hg) | Diastolic (mm Hg) | |
| Normal* | less than 120 | and | less than 80 |
| Prehypertension | 120–139 | or | 80–89 |
| Hypertension | |||
| Stage 1 | 140–159 | or | 90–99 |
| Stage 2 | 160 or higher | or | 100 or higher |
* Unusually low readings should be evaluated for clinical significance.
(From the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure)
Warning – If you have very high blood pressure, or are currently on medication for hypertension , as most of you already know, we promote natural solutions, and clearly the long term goal is to get your blood pressure down and get you off all medications. However, if you are on a medication, you certainly must wean yourself off it only under the guidance of a healthcare professional.
Additionally, although we hardly ever recommend the use of drugs, it’s VITAL that you do go on a medication now to lower your blood pressure if your blood pressure is very high. Otherwise you are putting yourself at serious risk of a stroke, and the brain damage that occurs during a stroke tends to be permanent and irreversible.
You clearly want to make sure you’re not increasing your risk for stroke until you’re able to implement these lifestyle changes. Once the cause of your problem has been addressed, then that will allow you to slowly wean off your medication.
Medical Treatment
The standard medical approach for high blood pressure is a chemical solution, i.e., blood pressure medication. If you have had high BP and you have been taking medication, has it worked for you?
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