What is High Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is an indicator of how hard the heart has to work. It is the force exerted on the walls of the body’s arteries and the organs as the heart pumps the blood through them. Blood pressure that is permanently high is a danger to health because extended periods of it damages the delicate tissues and cells of the arteries and organs.

Left untreated high blood pressure (or hypertension) significantly increases the risk of one developing heart disease leading to heart attacks or having debilitating strokes which may ultimately cause early death.
There is often no symptoms of high blood pressure which is why it is called the silent killer, and many sufferers have been unaware of their condition for several years. It is a fact that most people normally learn they have hypertension when their doctor declares it after a routine check up.

There are modern low cost electronic monitors that measure blood pressure automatically. The cuff is wrapped around the arm and fastened by a Velcro's strip, and it begins to inflate simply by hitting the “start button”; the machine then returns the systolic blood pressure, the diastolic blood pressure and the heart pulse rate (per minute) a few seconds later via its electronic display.
This type of monitor makes it very easy for any individual to measure blood pressure at home, and I regard regularly using one as an essential step in high blood pressure management.

The systolic blood pressure occurs when the heart actually contracts thereby pushing blood out of its chambers into the main arteries, and diastolic blood pressure occurs when the heart is relaxed between contractions.

The values determined are usually written as:

systolic pressure / diastolic pressure

Which is orally expressed as:

“systolic pressure Over diastolic pressure”

So if one has readings of 130 mmHg and 84 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressures respectively, then the blood pressure is written as 130 / 84 and orally expressed as “130 Over 84”.

Assuming that blood pressure is taken when one is relaxed and at rest, one should be wary of high blood pressure when systolic blood pressure reading is regularly above 120 mmHg and/or when diastolic pressure is above 80 mmHg.
High Blood Pressure is defined as being systolic pressure140mmHg and above, or diastolic pressure of 90 mmHg and above. The severity of hypertension is categorised by blood pressures relative to these two pairs of blood pressure values.

High blood pressure is naturally affected by one's body weight , state of physical fitness , dietary intake , and (amongst other things) how one normally handles stress. Please follow the links for relevant postings in related blogs.

Welcome to the High Blood Pressure Blog

Hi there,

Welcome to my blog

I'll be posting tips about High Blood Pressure Management without the use of anti-hypertension medication.