Blood pressure is a measure of how forcefully your blood is pressing against your artery walls with each heartbeat. Blood pressure is gauged by two numbers such as 120//80 which is spoken as one twenty over eighty. The first number is called systolic pressure and the second number if diastolic ... Read review
Advantages: none really unless you have low pressure Disadvantages: lots if you have high pressure
Blood pressure is a measure of how forcefully your blood is pressing against your artery walls with each heartbeat. Blood pressure is gauged by two numbers such as 120//80 which is spoken as one twenty over eighty. The first number is called systolic pressure and the second number if diastolic pressure. The systolic pressure is the one in the arteries when they are filled with blood and your heart is beating and the diastolic pressure is the one ... .../>
In the UK it is considered that your blood pressure is fairly normal if your top reading is between 110-140 and bottom reading is 70-90, although 120/80 is about the most average you can get and apparently this is the roughly the range to aim for.
=== HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE ===
In general if you have high blood pressure you should be aware of it already and your physician should have given you advice ... more
Blood pressure is a measure of how forcefully your blood is pressing against your artery walls with each heartbeat. Blood pressure is gauged by two numbers such as 120//80 which is spoken as one twenty over eighty. The first number is called systolic pressure and the second number if diastolic pressure. The systolic pressure is the one in the arteries when they are filled with blood and your heart is beating and the diastolic pressure is the one when your heart is resting between beats.
In the UK it is considered that your blood pressure is fairly normal if your top reading is between 110-140 and bottom reading is 70-90, although 120/80 is about the most average you can get and apparently this is the roughly the range to aim for.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
In general if you have high blood pressure you should be aware of it already and your physician should have given you advice on how to lower your pressure or have prescribed you with medication to aid you in the process.
High blood pressure is also known as "hypertension" and should be taken seriously. If hypertension is not monitored and reduced you increase your risk of having strokes, heart failure, heart attacks and is currently the most common cause of chronic renal failure.
High blood pressure also reduced your life expectancy. If you or anyone you know has hypertension please take it seriously and do take your doctor's advice on lowering your pressure.
There are certain things which you should avoid if you have hypertension such as excessive salt, try to cut down as much as you possibly can on your salt intake. Liquorice is also bad for people with high blood pressure.
There are some factors which can increase the risk of getting high blood pressure such as:
being overweight
smoking
being diabetic (type 1 or 2)
not doing physical exercise
drinking too much alcohol
excessive salt intake
excessive stress
If you cut down on the things that you know are bad for you (nowadays we mostly know what's bad for us), and try to do more exercise, we can decrease our chances of getting hypertension.
From what I understand if you don't control your blood pressure to a sensible level you might not even realise you have it until it's too late and you have a heart attack or stroke and some of the symptoms of hypertension that could indicate a problem include: sudden sleepiness, confusion or severe headaches. You could even end up in a coma from hypertension!
From what I understand if you are from an Afro Caribbean or South East Asian background you have more chance of getting high blood pressure. It is not actually known exactly why this is the case but pretty much every doctor I've spoken to over the years at my surgery has said this is true as have all the doctors I know socially (friends or family members). I guess then that I need to be extra careful being diabetic already AND being of Indian origin!
LOW BLOOD PRESSURE
Low blood pressure is also known as hypotension. In general it's not considered too dangerous to have low blood pressure but obviously it shouldn't be too low or investigations need to be made into the causes for this. Having low pressure means you have, to a certain extent, protection against factors which affect those with high blood pressure - such as not having too much salt intake.
Having low blood pressure can be beneficial to you in that it can reduce your chances of having heart disease or strokes.
You can tell if you have low pressure if your pressure if 90/60 or less but you should confirm this with your GP.
There aren't too many symptoms of low blood pressure as generally it's a good thing but it can cause dizziness when standing up or feeling faint. In extreme cases low blood pressure can cause fainting. If this happens you should get checked out by a doctor urgently as it could mean your pressure has dropped too low and is not being controlled.
Low blood pressure can be caused by several factors including being treated for high blood pressure (ironically this can bring your blood pressure down too far), diabetes, loss of blood due to injuries and at the start of pregnancy.
HAVE YOU BEEN TESTED LATELY?
Generally most of us have had our blood pressure checked at some time or other (if not regularly) by our own GPs. If you don't think you've been checked, do you recall having a band put around your upper arm by your doctor that looks similar to an armband worn when learning to swim? Air is then pumped into the armband till it feels rather tight and uncomfortable around your arm, much like someone is squeezing your arm and then the air is slowly released - during this air release your blood pressure rate is taken and noted down by your doctor.
If you have any issues with your blood pressure your doctor will be the person best able to tell you how to progress.
BLOOD PRESSURE AND DIABETES
People with diabetes should aim for a blood pressure rate in the region of 130/80 or lower. As diabetics are more prone to health issues such as heart attacks, kidney problems or strokes high blood pressure can be even more dangerous for diabetics than for non-diabetics. If you are diabetic you should have your blood pressure checked at least twice a year to monitor changes and to ensure your blood pressure has not become high.
FURTHER INFORMATION
If you would like further info on blood pressure you can contact the Blood Pressure Association on 020 8772 4994 or look at their website: www.bpassoc.org.uk
NB: I am not claiming to be an expert in blood pressure - as with any health related opinions and articles on non medical websites you should consult with your doctor if you have any worries about anything you read here.
Advantages: To high BP - none Disadvantages: Strokes, heart attacks, death
March 2003 – updated… I will begin this op with my own story…
I went to the gym a couple of months ago because I wanted a programme sorting out, as I wanted to strengthen certain parts of my body. It is compulsory that they check your blood pressure (BP) and when they did so they found that mine was quite high (something like 160/105 –I will explain all this later… The guy checked my BP again and it was still high. He told me that I ought to go ... ...he could not continue with the programme. I went home rather shaken. I am thirty-five, I have high blood pressure. Yikes! Mrs Borg brought me back down to earth, telling me not to worry, but that I should go top the doctors.
I made an appointment with the nurse for a week or so later. It was still too high! She took a sample of urine and I went to see her again a week or so later. My BP was again in the region of 160/105, this time she wanted a ...
Borg 13.12.2002 (19.03.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on High Blood Pressure
Circumstances have caused me to become more aware of Blood Pressure (BP) recently. I have read some valuable op’s on ciao about the condition, and have decided to add my own.
I suppose my first real awareness started when Stewart (hubby) received a letter from our doctor’s surgery asking him to take part in a project that they were undertaking. This project entailed having a blood test to ascertain cholesterol level, and also to have ... ...to estimate in percentage terms the likely risk of a heart attack, and take precautions to avoid one.
Stewart went to the surgery and had the blood test and BP reading. The BP reading turned out to be high, so he was asked to go again in 3 weeks time to see a nurse & get it read again. Apparently the second reading was higher than the first one (sorry he didn’t keep a note of the ‘scores’). He was told to come back a third time, ...
Keeway 17.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on High Blood Pressure
Advantages: Free, essential, could save your life Disadvantages: None
I’m fortunate in that I am registered with a good NHS doctors’ practice, which is very pro-active and practically forces all its clients to have regular check-ups.
Before Christmas I booked myself in for a ‘Well-Man’ check up immediately after the festive season to see what damage my eating and drinking binge had done. I now do this as a matter of course at this time of the year, reasoning that this is going to be my nadir ... ...unhealthiness is concerned and hopefully the only way is up.
I used to do it the opposite way round, and lose weight, exercise regularly and lay off foods full of cholesterol in the weeks leading up to my annual check up. This usually achieved better than expected results, but I eventually realised I was only fooling myself because as soon as I left the surgery with a false level of confidence I would revert to my bad habits of eating fatty foods, ...
Merv 24.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on High Blood Pressure
High Blood Pressure.
Blood pressure is one of the main concerns that affects out society. So why is there such concern? Why are so many are there so many strokes that may arise form ignored high blood pressure? Why does it cause so many deaths?
To help you to appreciate what is Blood Pressure, we need to know why this is very important knowledge to know.
Blood pressure is the physical influence that pushes the blood against the walls of the arteries. ... ...to all of the body’s tissue and organs. Every time this happens, particularly when you are resting it pumps out its blood to the arteries at a rate about 60-70 times a minute.
When your doctor measures the heart, using a blood pressure it is measured with an instrument called a sphygmomanometer (pronounce as sfig-mo-ma-nom-e-ter). There are two types of pressure (1) Systolic this means when the heart contracts and is pumping blood.
(2) Diastolic ...
Elainebaba 24.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on High Blood Pressure
Hypertension, the correct name for high b lood pressure. Hypertension can lead to serious consequences, and it is therefore important that your BP (B lood pressure) is correctly monitored and treated as necessary.
Hypertension is simply put when your arteries are narrowed and the b lood is pushed harder through them. Most patients do not know they have hypertension until they go to their doctor for something else and have their B P read as routine. ... ...as you get older this increases and the acceptable norm becomes 160/90 (at around 60 years).
In ninety per cent of people the cause for their hypertension is unknown, this is called ‘primary or essential’ hypertension. In the rest of the cases there are reasons this is usually called ‘secondary hypertension’ Some of the main reasons include: chronic kidney diseases, diseases in the arteries supplying the kidneys, chronic ...
dabmim 01.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on High Blood Pressure
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