High blood pressure can be potentially devastating to your health, so work diligently to know exactly what numbers corresponds with your blood pressure. There are new guidelines out there for assessing this reading, so that you can remain even more aware of how this number can potentially affect your life. Individuals with high blood pressure are much more likely to suffer painful and debilitating medical conditions, including heart attacks and strokes. Furthermore, patients with high blood pressure can experience kidney disease and even heart failure if steps are not made to reverse the problem. When you take your blood pressure, be sure what the numbers mean and know exactly where you fall in the blood pressure reading ranges . What Do The Numbers Mean? The numbers associated with your blood pressure have direct ties to your heart. One number measures the intensity of the pressure of the blood flowing through your veins. This blood is pumped out by the heart and travels through the veins in order to feed the necessary liquid to the rest of your body. The specific number consists of the systolic and diastolic pressures and is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). The systolic pressure is the peak pressure point, whereas the diastolic is the lowest pressure point. The two of these numbers coordinate to determine the exact rating of your blood pressure. Normal Values When you look at the blood pressure reading ranges , there are several different categories of numbers. The normal values range between 90 and 120 mmHg for systolic and 50 and 80 mm HG for diastolic. Even though you have a normal value for your blood pressure, you should still have it checked on a regular basis. When any change occurs, notify your primary health care provider. Pre Hypertensive New guidelines for blood pressure have been recently published. These guidelines created a new category, pre hypertensive. Instead of blanketing all readings under the normal value, this category notifies you that you are on the high side of normal and may potentially enter into figures associated with high blood pressure. Numbers associated with pre hypertensive are from 120 to 139 mm Hg for systolic and from 80 to 89 mm Hg for diastolic. High Blood Pressure Stage One High blood pressure is broken up into two categories. The first category is Stage One. This stage is serious, but not as potentially life threatening as the other category. The numbers associated with Stage One of high blood pressure are between 140 and 159 systolic and 90-99 diastolic. High Blood Pressure Stage Two If you are diagnosed with Stage Two high blood pressure, you should immediately begin working to lower this reading. Monitor your blood pressure on a regular basis and consider the many medications on the market designed to lower your blood pressure. Also, a lifestyle change that excludes unhealthy foods from your diet and includes much more exercise will help you in this task. Anyone who has blood pressure that measures 160 or higher mm Hg systolic or 100 or higher mm Hg diastolic is considered to have high blood pressure. |
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