120 Over 80 Articles - What is High Blood Pressure?

What is High Blood Pressure?
Introduction

Blood pressure is an indicator of how hard the heart has to work. It is the force exerted on the walls of the body’s arteries and the organs as the heart pumps the blood through them. Blood pressure that is permanently high is a danger to health because extended periods of it damages the delicate tissues and cells of the arteries and organs.

Left untreated hypertension significantly increases the risk of one developing heart disease leading to heart attacks or having debilitating strokes which may ultimately cause early death.

There is often no symptoms of high blood pressure which is why it is called the silent killer, and many sufferers have been unaware of their condition for several years. It is a fact that most people normally learn they have hypertension when their doctor declares it after a routine check up.

Measuring Blood Pressure

The instrument that measures blood pressure is called a sphygmomanometer.
Traditionally it consists of an inflatable cuff with a manual rubber bulb pump whose inflated pressure is balanced against a column of mercury to which it is attached to by a flexible pipe.
The height of the mercury column that the pressurised cuff supports at anytime is the pressure in mmHg (millimetres of mercury).

To measure blood pressure the cuff is wrapped around the upper arm about an inch above the elbow, and then progressively inflated. In this position the cuff directly interrupts the flow of blood in the brachial artery, (a main artery which is just below the skin in the arm) which dilates and contracts in unison with the heart as impulses of blood flow through it.
Eventually the inflating cuff stops the flow of blood through this artery when the systolic blood pressure is reached. The doctor determines this point by listening for the heart beat in the artery just below the cuff via his stethoscope.
The air in the cuff is then slowly released until the blood in the brachial artery starts to flow unhindered again; this occurs at the diastolic blood pressure. The doctor determines this when he /she hears nothing in the stethoscope positioned just below the cuff.

Blood Pressure Measurement

There are modern low cost electronic monitors that measure blood pressure automatically. The cuff is wrapped around the arm and fastened by a Velcro's strip, and it begins to inflate simply by hitting the “start button”; the machine then returns the systolic pressure, the diastolic blood pressure and the heart pulse rate (per minute) a few seconds later via its electronic display.
This type of monitor makes it very easy for any individual to measure blood pressure at home, and I regard regularly using one as an essential step in high blood pressure management.

The values determined are usually written as:

systolic pressure / diastolic pressure

Which is orally expressed as:

“systolic pressure Over diastolic pressure”

So if one has readings of 130 mmHg and 84 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressures respectively, then the blood pressure is written as 130 / 84 and orally expressed as “130 Over 84”.

What Constitutes High Blood Pressure?

Assuming that blood pressure is taken when one is relaxed and at rest, one should be wary of high blood pressure when systolic blood pressure reading is regularly above 120 mmHg and/or when diastolic pressure is above 80 mmHg.
High Blood Pressure is defined as being systolic pressure140mmHg and above, or diastolic pressure of 90 mmHg and above. The severity of hypertension is categorised by blood pressures relative to these two pairs of blood pressure values. Table 1 shows this.

Table1. Adult Blood Pressure Classification as recommended by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Blood Pressure Category	Systolic Blood Pressure (mmHg)		Diastolic Blood Pressure (mmHg)
Ideal	less than 120	and	less than 80
Normal	less than 130	and	less than 85
High Normal	130 - 139	or	85 - 89
Stage 1 High Blood Pressure	140 - 159	or	90 - 99
Stage 2 High Blood Pressure	160 - 179	or	100 - 109
Stage 3 High Blood Pressure	180 and greater	or	110 and above

Blood Pressure Fluctuations

An individual's blood pressure varies with different moods and levels of physical activities. On any particular day blood pressure is continually changing in response to what ever we are doing.
For example it is normal for blood pressure to temporarily rise a little if one is say, climbing the stairs or to rise even more if the individual is jogging or playing tennis for more than a few minutes. However once the activities have ceased the blood pressure is expected to return to normal or optimal levels again soon after the body recovers and returns to a state of rest.
Table 2 indicates fluctuations in blood pressure from some everyday activities.

Table2. Blood Pressure Variations

Activity	Systolic Blood Pressure Change (mmHg)	Diastolic Blood Pressure Change (mmHg)
Drinking	+ 14	+ 6
Awakening	+ 20	+ 16
Sex	+ 35	+ 13
Eating	+ 4	+ 4
Sleeping	- 20	- 16
Post Aerobic Activity	- 25	- 12
Light Reading	- 7	- 4

Intensive mental activity (including imagined ones) and anxiety has exactly the same effect on the body as physical activity and elevates blood pressure in the same way. The problem though is it is not easy to switch off intense mental agility or anxiety when the individual wishes to, so consequently blood pressure could remain elevated for much longer even when one is physically at rest.

Blood pressure is lowest when one is asleep. On awakening it tends to be very high; this is something to do with the body "kick starting" again after a nights sleep, which requires a surge of internal body activity that temporarily elevate blood pressure.

Types of High Blood Pressure

Hypertension is broadly described in two ways by conventional medicine; it is either primary or secondary high blood pressure.

Secondary high blood pressure is said to occur when blood pressure is elevated as a result of another specific illness. When this illness is addressed and successfully treated, then the blood pressure disappears.
Culprit diseases are usually those that interfere with the normal functioning of the kidneys, such as inflammation of the kidneys, blockages to the kidney arteries or diabetes.
Only 5 - 10% of hypertension cases are actually of this type.

The 90 - 95% of hypertension cases where the cause is not attributed to a specific illness is broadly known as Primary or Essential High Blood Pressure.
It is this type of hypertension that affects approximately 70 million Americans and millions of others all over the globe, causing so much difficulty for those who are aware of their condition in pin pointing the natural reasons why they have fallen prey to it.
Some experts say Essential High Blood Pressure is due to inherited genetics, some say it is due to "environmental pressures", some say it is due to stress and anxiety, others say it is hormonal imbalances to blame; one thing agreed upon by everyone though, is high blood pressure truly is epidemic in the industrialised world and its consequences urgently need to be addressed.

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