Hypertension, high blood pressure (part 1)
- p31health
- Feb 28
- 2 min read
What is it?
Blood pressure (bp) is the pressure in blood vessels called arteries in your body. It is made up of 2 numbers, the first number is usually higher and is the pressure in the blood vessels when your heart is squeezing or contracting. The second, usually lower number, is the pressure in the arteries when your heart is relaxed.
Hypertension is when this pressure, either top or bottom number or both numbers, is persistently staying higher than normal.
How do you recognise it?
Most of the time, high blood pressure DOES NOT CAUSE SYMPTOMS. Occasionally, some people can experience headaches, chest pain or problems with their vision.
The only way to really know for sure, is to check your blood pressure. The most accurate way of checking is using a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure machine) which is attached to your upper arm. There are some that measure around the wrist but they can sometimes be inaccurate.
If you have close family members who had a heart attack/stroke/hypertension/diabetes/high cholesterol, it might be beneficial for you to check your blood pressure and monitor it. In any case, from the age of 40 years old, monitoring your blood pressure is a good habit to have.
What is high?
Blood pressure is a fluctuant thing, if you check someone's blood pressure 10 times one after the other, you will likely get 10 different readings - This is normal! What we are looking for is if the bp is running higher on AVERAGE than it should be. For bp readings done at home, an average of 135/85mmHg or above is classed as hypertensive.
If you get a bp of 180/120mmHg or above, please seek urgent medical attention at that time as there is a high risk of Stroke.
Why is it important?
Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attack and strokes.
Hypertension can have an affect on blood vessels throughout your whole body and therefore it can affect multiple different parts of your body including: eyes, kidney function and heart muscle.
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