Normal Blood Pressure

Diagnosis

High blood pressure is often diagnosed during a visit to the doctor. Blood pressure is measured using a cuff around the arm and a device called a sphygmomanometer. If your blood pressure reading is high, you will be asked to come back for repeat blood pressure checks. If you have two or more visits with readings over 140/90, you will be diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Most people often think that high blood pressure is a condition that only adults, 40 years old and above, experience. But actually, anyone can have high blood pressure, regardless of age, gender and race.

The body is an amazing and complicated system. Every time a person’s heart beats, blood is released from the heart and spread throughout the body via the blood vessels (arteries, capillaries and veins are types of blood vessels). Oxygen is retrieved from the lungs and deposited throughout the body via the blood vessels. Carbon dioxide is carried to the heart via the blood vessels and is sent to the lungs so the carbon dioxide can be released and a new supply of oxygen can be picked up.

A lonely heart could just be one of the important factors that causes high blood pressure. In fact, a recent study shows loneliness can be as bad for your heart as being over weight or inactive. Could spending time with friends be the answer to lowering your blood pressure?

How Is Blood Pressure Affected?

When the University of Chicago studied a group of 229 men and women between the ages of 50 and 68 … they found something interesting. After eliminating all other factors, they found that those who lacked comradeship were more likely to have high blood pressure.

For every three American adults, one is estimated to have high blood pressure. Around 65 million Americans over the age of 20 have high blood pressure. Scary statistics? You bet. Especially if you consider the fact that, if left uncontrolled, high blood pressure can result in leading causes of death like heart failure, stroke, aneurysm, heart attack, and kidney failure.

What Is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in contact with the walls of the arteries. It is registered as two numbers, as the heart beats (the systolic pressure) over as the heart relaxes between beats (the diastolic pressure). This process of assigning number is written one above or before the other, with the systolic number on top and the diastolic number on the bottom. Here is an example, 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mmHg)) is stated orally as 120 over 80. Regular blood pressure is less than 120 mmHg systolic and less than 80 mmHg diastolic.