What Is The Best Way To Define High Blood Pressure?
One problem with high blood pressure today is that it is so common and so often talked about that a lot of people do not afford it the respect it deserves. The simple fact is that high blood pressure, or hypertension (to give it its medical name), is a killer and needs to be treated as such.
Many hundreds of doctors and scientists have spent a great deal of money and time trying to describe just what a true definition of high blood pressure is.
Over the years there have been numerous human population studies performed on this topic which have given the doctors and scientists a very wide range of blood pressure values to work with. However the results are frequently skewed and vary from country to country and even from district to district within a particular country. Thus, it has been agreed that the definition of high blood pressure can only be arrived at as a result of constant observation and experimentation.
Normal blood pressure is seen today much like normal body weight in that the defining level is that which is associated with the greatest projected life expectancy. This is the pressure at which the heart and other important elements of the body like the circulatory system can function under optimum conditions without the risk of heart disease and other associated conditions.
There are some other factors that have to be taken into account when defining high blood pressure and some need to be excluded. For example, If a healthy person gets their systolic (or pumping) blood pressure can be expected to rise by possibly a significant amount because their blood flow rises in response to emotional excitement or any form of energetic activity. But it will not stay high for long and as soon as the level of excitement subsides your blood pressure also falls back to its normal level.
In addition to a systolic (pumping) pressure you also have a diastolic (resting) pressure which is the more important of the two and is an excellent guide in ascertaining whether a high reading is a false positive. The reason why the diastolic pressure is important is because it reveals the state of your arteries and a high reading may mean that the arteries are constricted and not allowing the free flow of blood.
It is very important to know that high blood pressure is not in itself a disease but is a key criterion by which doctors can diagnose other conditions.
Finally, it is also necessary to know that high blood pressure cannot be cured as such but it can be very well controlled.
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Written by Donald Saunders on December 10th, 2009 with
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