Before I get into explaining the dangers of high diastolic blood pressure, let me offer you a little background on how your body circulates blood. Every time your heart beats, it pushes blood into your blood vessel system (arteries, capillaries and veins are types of blood vessels). Your blood pressure is a measurement of the force against the wall of your arteries during this process.
Blood pressure is highest when the heart beats. This is called systolic pressure. When your heart’s at rest, between beats, your pressure drops to its lowest level. This is the diastolic pressure.
If you’ve ever visited your doctor, you know that when he takes your blood pressure, he’ll always report the reading using both of these numbers, the systolic and diastolic pressures. The systolic pressure is the first or top number, and the diastolic pressure is the second or bottom number. If your reading is 120/80, your doctor will likely tell you “120 over 80”.
Now, the catch with high diastolic blood pressure is that only one of these numbers needs to be high for you to have hypertension. If they’re both high, well, that’s generally a little more concerning. But a high diastolic blood pressure can be particularly concerning for younger people. Research has shown that it’s an important risk indicator for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and other serious conditions.
For those people above the age of 55, the diastolic pressure will naturally begin to decrease, while the systolic pressure usually begins to rise and become more important.
But what is a high diastolic blood pressure result? 80 is considered the baseline. When your diastolic reading falls between 80-89, then you’re generally considered to be pre-hypertension and it’s time to start paying attention. If the number goes above 90, then the situation is considered serious enough that efforts should be made to bring it down. Efforts may include changes in your diet, elimination of the stress factors in your life, medication or a combination of all of these.
It’s also important to note here that one high diastolic blood pressure reading does not necessarily indicate high blood pressure.? There are a number of factors that affect a reading. For instance, stress. If you were late for your doctor’s appointment or if you find visiting the doctor to be stressful, these can affect your outcome.
This is why your physician will want to keep a record of your blood pressure readings. In fact, if you have a high reading, he may invited you to return in a few days to do a follow-up reading just to make sure that the first one wasn’t an aberration.
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