Friday, September 20, 2013

Blood Pressure: An Understanding

Exactly What Is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is a measuring of the pressure exerted by the circulating blood on the walls of the arteries, veins and chambers of the heart. The pressure of blood is measured in the context of systolic and diastolic activities. When the ventricles in the heart contract, it is termed as a systolic activity, while the unwinding ventricles mark a diastolic activity.

The pressure of blood is greatest throughout the systole activity and lowest during the diastole activity. The unit of measuring blood pressure is millimeters. A regular blood pressure reading is 120/80 mmHg.
An ordinary healthy individual keeps the blood pressure reading of 120/80 mmHg. A deviation from this normal reading can lead to a blood pressure disorder. There are basically two irregular conditions of blood pressure. They are known as high blood pressure or hypertension and low blood pressure or hypotension.

High Blood Pressure / Hypertension

A person is known to suffer from hypertension when their measurement of blood pressure rises over that of an ordinary reading. A regular blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg. When this blood pressure increases to, say 140 / 90 mmHg, the person is understood to have high blood pressure.
Hypertension is often called as 'a silent killer'. You might be experiencing a hypertension for a long period of time and not know it at all. When a person develops hypertension, it normally lasts for lifetime.

Why Hypertension?

Your heart pumps the blood and supplies it to the various body organs of your body via arteries. The arteries, when leaving your heart, narrow into arterioles. The arterioles further narrow themselves into capillaries. These capillaries supply oxygen and nutrients to the various body organs.

Due to specific nerve impulses, the arteries become dilated or contracted. If the arteries become contracted, the passage of blood is hampered and it rises the pressure of blood. The condition reasons high blood pressure or hypertension. This condition strains your heart and can even damage your blood vessels. If the vessels get damaged, the blood supply can further affect different body organs linked to the damaged vessels.

The body usually bears and manages this abrupt increase of pressure for a long period of time. This is one of the sole reasons for the fact that you can live your entire life, without any ill-effects or signs, from hypertension.

Two Forms Of High Blood Pressure

There are two forms of high blood pressure, essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. Around 95 % of high blood pressure cases are related to important hypertension. The reason for necessary high blood pressure is multifold though.
There are several factors which result in important hypertension. One of the main factors is high salt intake. Various other elements that can contribute to the reason for necessary high blood pressure are tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse, overweight, diabetic issues mellitus, a sedentary lifestyle and genetic causes.
Secondary high blood pressure amounts to at minimum 5 % of the cases of high blood pressure. The elements contributing to secondary high blood pressure are pregnancy, a sluggish pulse, drugs, kidney illnesses, particular kinds of cancers, malformed aorta and aortic vale illness.
High blood pressure mainly stays undetected in its first stage of occurrence. A person would probably never ever find out about it. But if the condition of hypertension prolongs, it can cause serious damages to the different body organs. High blood pressure can directly impact the person through kidney failure, congestive heart failure or heart attack.

Low Blood Pressure / Hypotension

In the medical terms, low blood pressure is called hypotension. A person is stated to have reduced blood pressure disorder, if his blood pressure falls below the normal reading of 120/80 mmHg.

Why Low Blood Pressure?

There are lots of causes of reduced blood pressure. Among the common cause include acute illness. The condition can be known with the symptoms such as severe blood loss, infection, fluid loss or harm to the heart. The age-factor plays a vital function in reduced blood pressure. Increasing age causes your arteries to stiffen and cause a drop in the pressure of blood.

Damage to adrenal glands can additionally lead to low blood pressure conditions. Damage to adrenal glands affects the production of aldosterone in your body. This hormone controls the salt quantities in the body. If the aldosterone hormone gets impacted, it results in the loss of salt from your body, more resulting in reduced blood pressure. This causes dizziness when you stand. Low blood pressure can also be caused due to the use of diuretics.

An individual with reduced blood pressure shows symptoms of chest pain, headache, lengthened diarrhea or vomiting. The person likewise suffers from burning sensation while urination, stiff neck, high fever and irregular heart beat. The individual, at times, suffers from shortness of breath and a cough with phlegm.

Normal Is Healthy!


Neither high blood pressure, nor low blood pressure is good for your body and well being. You should get your blood pressure checked regularly for either of these two disorders. The appropriate therapy and control of your blood pressure will definitely enable you to live a healthy and happy life!

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