There are many things that can effect your blood pressure, either raising it or lowering it, and there are different blood pressure ranges you should be aware of. The pressure range which different people can cope with is varied but over time there have been standardized ranges that the medical community uses to determine the various stages of hypertension.
Hypertension is measured as 2 distinct values, systolic and diastolic and is usually read as systolic over diastolic pressure readings. Pressure is also measured in millimetres of mercury as the original instrument called a sphygmomanometer used to measure arterial pressure used mercury in a tube much like a thermometer or barometer to show the pressure and is read as mmHG, HG being the chemical symbol of mercury. Another way to measure blood pressure is as kilopascals which more modern equipment measure, however even these newer electronic instruments tend to use the older mercury reading.
The systolic pressure reading is taken when the left ventricle of the heart contracts and gives the maximum pressure on the arteries and usually occurs at the beginning of the cardiac cycle. The diastolic value is the lowest pressure reading taken after the heart contracts and should be the lowest reading during the cardiac cycle.
The values of these readings are not constant and can fluctuate between heartbeats. Other factors that can effect the hypertension levels temporally are stress, anxiety, disease, nutrition or drugs, drinking coffee or tea can effect blood pressure ranges along with many other foods or drugs.
Usually pressure readings are taken over a few different visits to your doctor or days to try to build up an average reading. If this average reading is not in the normal blood pressure range you will be told that you have hypertension.
In the US the blood pressure range considered normal is 120 mm HG or less for the systolic reading and 80 mm HG or less for the diastolic reading usually written as 120/80 or said as 120 over 80.
There are different Stages of hypertension and depending on which stage you have will depend on the treatment you receive. Of course the higher your blood pressure reading is the more likely you are to have serious health problems or complications which may cause heart attacks, strokes or other blood related problems.
Stage 1 hypertension is usually in the range of 140mmHg – 159mmHg systolic and 90mmHg – 99mmHg diastolic. This can be treatable with a healthy lifestyle and some medication from your doctor, discuss with your doctor what you can do to lower your blood pressure without having to rely on medication all the time.
Stage 2 hypertension is over 160mmHG systolic and over 100mmHG diastolic. At these levels you want to reduce the pressure quickly and your doctor will use medication to do this, you may have to keep taking medication to keep your hypertension levels reduced and you will have to monitor your pressure levels regularly.
So the blood pressure range you fall in will affect how you are treated and what complications you might be affected by. Always discuss with your doctor how you can reduce your pressure readings without medication as some medications can have unwanted side effects but follow their advice especially with very high hypertension readings.
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