Blood Pressure

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Blood Pressure[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is Blood Pressure?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Blood Pressure is the pressure of the blood flowing through your blood vessels against the vessel walls. It depends on your blood flow and the resistance of your blood vessels to blood flow. If the pressure is high, your heart must work much harder to maintain adequate blood flow to your body.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What causes it?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The causes of high blood pressure can vary and most of the time, the cause isn’t known. This form of the condition is called `essential hypertension’. It might be due to the narrowing of the arteries, more blood than normal, or the heart beating more forcefully or faster than it usually should. Any of these conditions can raise the force of the blood against the artery walls.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sometimes high blood pressure can be caused by another medical problem, such as kidney disease. When this happens, the condition is called `secondary hypertension’. As the name indicates, treating the main problem makes the blood pressure go down.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is Systolic and diastolic?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Your heart can beat more than 100,000 times a day. Each time it beats, a surge of blood is pumped from your heart into your arteries. This increases the pressure in your arteries. In between heartbeats the pressure in your arteries decreases. That is why blood pressure is reported as two numbers, eg. 120/80.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The first, higher number is called Systolic and it is the pressure of the blood against the artery walls when the heart contracts. The second, lower number is called diastolic and it is the pressure against the artery walls when the heart relaxes between beats.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is the desirable blood pressure?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The desirable blood pressure for healthy adults is 120/80. Any blood pressure reading that consistently stays at 140/90 or higher is considered high blood pressure.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is meant by low blood pressure?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It is rare that a person has blood pressure that is too low. For some young or small people, a blood pressure reading of 90/70 or even 80/60 is perfectly normal and healthy. When their blood pressure is really too low, people feel dizzy or light headed every time they stand up or they always feel tired and lacking energy.[/FONT]​