How Do We Define High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)?
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
One of the problems with high blood pressure these days is that it is so common and talked about so frequently that a lot of people do not treat it with the respect it deserves. The fact is high blood pressure, or hypertension (to give it its medical name), is a killer and should be treated as such.
Many hundreds of doctors and scientists have spent a great deal of money and time attempting to identify exactly what the true definition of hypertension is.
There have been numerous human population studies carried out on this subject which have given the researchers and doctors a very wide range of blood pressure values. However the results are often skewed and differ from one country to the next and even from one district to the next within a specific country. It has been concluded therefore that the true definition of hypertension can only be arrived at through continuous observation and experimentation.
Normal blood pressure is seen much like normal body weight in the sense that the level used for its definition is that which is associated with the greatest chance of life expectancy. This is the level at which the heart together with other important elements of the body such as the circulatory system can function under optimum conditions without the risk of heart disease and other related conditions.
Naturally there are 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 individual was to become excited then their systolic (or pumping) blood pressure can be expected to rise by possibly a significant amount as their blood flow increases in response to extreme emotional excitement or any form of energetic activity. But it will not stay high for very long and once the level of excitement subsides your blood pressure also falls back to its normal level.
In addition to a systolic (pumping) blood pressure you also have a diastolic (resting) blood pressure which is the more important and is a very good guide in ascertaining whether or not a high blood pressure reading is a false positive. The reason why the diastolic pressure is important is because it reflects the state of a person’s arteries and if a person has a high reading this may show that your arteries are narrowed and not allowing the free flow of blood as they should be.
It is important to understand that high blood pressure is not in itself a disease but is a key criterion used by doctors to predict or diagnose other conditions.
Finally, it is also necessary to understand that high blood pressure cannot be cured although it can be very effectively controlled.
TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on many different aspects of blood pressure including how to lower high pressure and locating the best blood pressure monitors
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