What is blood pressure?
You may not give it a second thought, but your heart is beating continuously to pump blood around your body – in fact about 10 pints of it every minute. As your blood flows through the smaller blood vessels they cause a resistance, which as your heart pumps, creates the blood pressure needed to circulate vital oxygen and nutrients to your major organs: the heart, liver, kidneys and brain, in order to live.
How is blood pressure measured?
Blood pressure depends on two factors: how forcefully the heart pumps blood and how narrowed or relaxed the arteries are. Blood pressure is always measured using two numbers:
- The first figure is the systolic blood pressure - the maximum pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts (beats) and pushes blood out into the body.
- The second figure is the diastolic blood pressure. This is the minimum pressure in the arteries between beats when the heart relaxes to fill with blood.
The systolic pressure is always listed first, then the diastolic pressure. A typical normal blood pressure reading would be 110/70 mmHg.
High blood pressure and heart disease
Around 10 million people in the UK have high blood pressure - that's one in five of us – although we may not know it. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major risk factor for heart disease and strokes and can cause kidney failure, aneurysm and eye damage. This is because it puts a strain on our arteries and on the heart itself, potentially causing an artery to rupture or the heart to fail.
What causes high blood pressure?
For most people with high blood pressure, frustratingly there is no clear cause.What we do know is that it can run in families, and this combined with many other factors can bring about high blood pressure, namely:
- family history of high blood pressure
- increasing age
- overweight and obesity
- smoking
- diabetes
- kidney diseases
- high alcohol intake
- excessive salt intake
- lack of exercise
- certain medicines, such as steroids
How do I know I’ve got high blood pressure?
One of the big problems with high blood pressure is that it hardly ever causes symptoms. This means it may go unnoticed until it causes one of its later complications in the form of a stroke or heart attack. Don’t leave things to chance, high blood pressure can be treated so get regular health checks to detect any changes.That said, very severe hypertension can cause symptoms such as:
- headache
- sleepiness
- confusion
- coma
Reducing your blood pressure
There are some simple lifestyle changes your can make to help reduce your blood pressure:
- Get your blood pressure checked often and monitor it as needed
- Quit smoking
- Lose weight
- Exercise regularly
- Cut down on alcohol
- Eat a well-balanced healthy diet
- Try to keep stress in your life to a minimum
As with any big changes, have a chat with your doctor first. While lifestyle changes are a step in the right direction, they may not be enough to reduce your blood pressure, and if that’s the case, your doctor will be able to help you get the right medical treatment.
Related Links:
The British Hypertension Society
Website: http://www.bhsoc.org/default.stm
The Blood Pressure Association
Tel: 020 8772 4994
Website: http://www.bpassoc.org.uk/
