What Do Blood Pressure Numbers Mean
Blood pressure is measured using two numbers:
The first number, called systolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats.
The second number, called diastolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart rests between beats.
If the measurement reads 120 systolic and 80 diastolic, you would say, 120 over 80, or write, 120/80 mmHg.
How Can I Be More Active
- Check first with your healthcare provider before increasing your physical activity. Ask your provider what type and amount of exercise is right for you.
- Choose aerobic activities such as walking, biking or swimming.
- Start slowly and increase activity gradually. Aim for a regular routine of activity 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each session.
What Is High Blood Pressure In Children
Although it’s most common in older adults, hypertension can also affect children. The normal blood pressure for a child is dependent upon the child’s age, gender, and height. Your doctor can tell if your child’s blood pressure is abnormal. Children are at higher risk for hypertension if they are overweight, African-American, or if they have a family history of the condition. Children with high blood pressure may benefit from the DASH diet and taking medications. Children with high blood pressure should also maintain a healthy weight and avoid tobacco smoke.
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The Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure In Pregnant Women
After you already know the common symptoms that will occur in both men and women. In the article below you will find the symptoms of high blood pressure that could occur to the pregnant women.
The next symptom that also could be the indication that youre having the high blood pressure is the preeclampsia.So, preeclampsia is the condition that occurs when youre pregnant and you have the high blood pressure and you have the excessive protein in the urine. This preeclampsia commonly occurs during the 20 weeks of pregnancy.Whenever you have the history of high blood pressure, you could possibly develop this disease whenever youre pregnant.
It is really important to notice that the preeclampsia doesnt have any apparent symptoms, but, whenever youre experiencing something like persistent headache, sudden weight gain, blurred vision, and abnormal swelling in hands and feet during the pregnancy, you need to seek the medical attention as soon as possible. The mild preeclampsia could be treated by the following things:
- Bed rest.
- Taking the medications to lower the blood pressure.
- The labor has stalled.
- The mother have the infections, such as genital herpes or HIV.
- The mothers birth canal is obstructed.
- The mother have the previous uterine surgery.
- The baby at the high risk in the health.
How to Treat and Prevent High Blood Pressure
How To Lower Blood Pressure: The Dash Diet
Dietary changes can help control blood pressure. One diet designed to promote lower blood pressure is known as the DASH diet. This stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet recommends eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, nuts, and fish. Red meat, saturated fats, and sweets should be avoided. The DASH diet can lower blood pressure within 2 weeks. It can also help to reduce your intake of sodium. The following is the DASH diet suggested daily intake:
- 7-8 servings of grain
- 2-3 servings of low-fat or fat-free dairy products
- 2-3 servings of fats and oils
- 2 or less servings of meat, poultry, and fish
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How Do You Reduce The Risk Of Developing High Blood Pressure
Preventing high blood pressure if youre at risk of developing it largely comes down to your lifestyle. In most cases, unless there is an underlying condition causing it, high blood pressure can be avoided by leading a healthy lifestyle.
Try to eat a healthy diet that includes plenty of fruit, vegetables and fibre but limits your salt intake as salt raises your blood pressure. You should also limit how much alcohol you drink, ensuring you dont exceed 14 units in a week.
Regular exercise is also important for weight management and heart and blood vessel health. So aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week.
You should also quit smoking as this can put you at greater risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Consider Cutting Back On Caffeine
Caffeine raises your blood pressure, but the effect is temporary. It lasts 45 to 60 minutes and the reaction varies from individual to individual .
Some people may be more sensitive to caffeine than others. If youre caffeine-sensitive, you may want to cut back on your coffee consumption, or try .
Research on caffeine, including its health benefits, is in the news a lot. The choice of whether to cut back depends on many individual factors.
One older study indicated that caffeines effect on raising blood pressure is greater if your blood pressure is already high. This same study, however, called for more research on the subject .
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Family History Of Hypertension
While exercising and healthy eating go a long way towards lowering your blood pressure, there are some risk factors that you may not be able to change.
Genetics is a major contributing factor when it comes to your hearts health, and blood pressure can be hereditary. If you are aware of your immediate family being hypertensive or having had a heart attack before the age of 45 , you should make it a priority to visit a doctor.
Understanding family history is important to recognize the cause of high blood pressure, further evaluating whether it is genetic, poor eating habits or lack of exercise repeating itself across generations is also essential.
Even if you have a family history of high blood pressure, it doesnt mean that you cant take actions to avoid another heart episode in the family. Recognizing high blood pressure is challenging, but with regular blood pressure readings, you can easily track it.
What Should I Do If I Have High Blood Pressure
If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you and your healthcare provider will talk about your target blood pressure. Your provider may suggest that you:
- Check your own blood pressure regularly with a home blood pressure monitor. These electronic monitors are available at most pharmacies or online.
- Work on controlling anger and managing stress.
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Stroke And Brain Problems
High blood pressure can cause the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the brain to burst or be blocked, causing a stroke. Brain cells die during a stroke because they do not get enough oxygen. Stroke can cause serious disabilities in speech, movement, and other basic activities. A stroke can also kill you.
Having high blood pressure, especially in midlife, is linked to having poorer cognitive function and dementia later in life. Learn more about the link between high blood pressure and dementia from the National Institutes of Healths Mind Your Risks®external icon campaign.
What Do Blood Pressure Readings Mean
Blood pressure readings can vary in a single person throughout the day depending on the situation. Factors such as stress, anxiety, foods are eaten , smoking or exercise can cause pressure to rise.
The American Heart Association defines normal blood pressure as less than 120/80. Elevated blood pressure ranges between 120/80 and 129/80, and high blood pressure is 130/80 and higher. In pregnancy, normal blood pressure should be below 120/80.
If your blood pressure reaches the high range, you should see your doctor about lifestyle changes, and possibly medication especially if you have other risk factors, such as diabetes or heart disease.
High blood pressure may indicate an emergency situation. If this high blood pressure is associated with chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, or back or abdominal pain, seek medical care immediately. If you are experiencing no associated symptoms with a high blood pressure reading such as this, re-check it again within a few minutes and contact your doctor or go to an emergency room if it is still high.
If your blood pressure is lower than about 100/60 you may have low blood pressure, depending on the associated symptoms. If you are unsure, check with your doctor.
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What Is Considered Stroke
A severe increase in blood pressure that can lead to a stroke is called a hypertensive crisis. Extremely high blood pressure can damage blood vessels and weaken arteries in the brain, increasing the risk of stroke.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the leading cause of strokes in the U.S. However, understanding risk factors and blood pressure readings can help people seek appropriate treatment:
- Healthy blood pressure: under 120/80 mm Hg
- Prehypertension: 120/80 mm Hg to 139/89 mm Hg
- Hypertension: above 140/90 mm Hg
- Hypertensive crisis: above 180/120 mm Hg
Blood pressure readings above 180/120 mmHg are considered stroke-level, dangerously high and require immediate medical attention.
What To Think About
- The medicine your doctor chooses may be based on other health problems you have. For example, doctors often prescribe ACE inhibitors for people who have diabetes or heart failure.
- Some people who get a cough while taking ACE inhibitors do well with ARBs, which usually don’t cause a cough.
- You may need to avoid some over-the-counter medicines. For example, check with your doctor before you take any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen and ibuprofenwith high blood pressure medicines. NSAIDs may raise blood pressure and keep your blood pressure medicines from working well. NSAIDs may also interact with your blood pressure medicine and cause kidney problems.
- Don’t take any other prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, or other natural health products unless you talk to your doctor first. Medicines can interact with each other and keep blood pressure medicines from working right or cause a bad reaction.
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How Do I Know If I Have High Blood Pressure
Theres only one way to know if you have high blood pressure: Have a doctor or other health professional measure it. Measuring your blood pressure is quick and painless.
Talk with your health care team about regularly measuring your blood pressure at home, also called self-measured blood pressure monitoring.
High blood pressure is called the silent killer because it usually has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not know they have it.
Change In Mental Status
This can be a difficult symptom to deal with because when we become confused we may not be able to respond with appropriate judgment. Its important that people who are usually around you are able to recognize the signs of changes in mental status: muddled thinking, changes in speech, unusual behavior and even simply reduced activity. There are many other possible causes for this symptom besides hypertension, including stroke or possibly an unreported head injury, so always seek medical attention if you experience changes in consciousness. Make sure that family members and caregivers know what to watch for, and know that any sign of quickly changing mental status is an emergency that requires immediate medical response.
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What Tests Diagnose High Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is measured with a blood pressure cuff . This may be done using a stethoscope and a cuff and gauge or by an automatic machine. It is a routine part of the physical examination and one of the vital signs often recorded for a patient visit. Other vital signs include pulse rate, respiratory rate , temperature, and weight.
The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology recommend specific steps to measure blood pressure in a medical setting.
- The patient should relax in a chair for at least five minutes, with the back supported and feet on the floor
- The patient should not have had caffeine, tobacco products or participated in any exercise for at least 30 minutes before the blood pressure check
- The patient should not talk for the five minute rest period
- The blood pressure cuff should not be placed over clothing instead it should be placed directly on the skin
- The arm being tested should be supported or be rested on a table or arm rest
- The cuff being used should be the appropriate size for the patient
- Blood pressure should be checked at least two times, separated by 1-2 minutes, and an average taken to estimate that personâs blood pressure
- For the first visit for a blood pressure check, the blood pressure reading should be measured in both arms and the higher of the two readings should be used to decide upon treatment
Other studies may be considered depending upon the individual patient’s needs
Looking For A List Of Symptoms
If you are looking for a list of symptoms and signs of high blood pressure , you wont find them here. This is because most of the time, there are none.
Myth: People with high blood pressure will experience symptoms, like nervousness, sweating, difficulty sleeping or facial flushing.
Truth: High blood pressure is a largely symptomless silent killer. If you ignore your blood pressure because you think a certain symptom or sign will alert you to the problem, you are taking a dangerous chance with your life.
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What Is High Blood Pressure Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment And Prevention
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a common disease that occurs when the pressure in your arteries is higher than it should be.
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood throughout the body. If left untreated, high blood pressure can lead to health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, vision loss, and more.
Ptsd And High Blood Pressure
A growing body of research has linked post-traumatic stress disorder to high blood pressure.
Researchers arent sure about the mechanism underlying the relationship between PTSD and high blood pressure, but it may have something to do with higher levels of inflammation in patients with PTSD, which may increase blood pressure.
Since PTSD has a much higher incidence in veterans, experts say screening for high blood pressure should be routine not only in active soldiers who are at risk, but also for those who are no longer active and receive care from Veterans Affairs hospitals.
The AHA is the nations oldest and largest nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting heart disease, as well as its major risk factors, including high blood pressure. The AHA funds lifesaving research and advocates for people affected by all heart-related issues. You can also find diet and lifestyle tips for getting your blood pressure under control.
Million Hearts is a national initiative led by the CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Its goal is to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes within five years. It focuses on small steps people can take to reduce risk factors for these heart events, including blood pressure control.
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Overweight And Belly Fatness
Not only on the fat pad as such but their distribution is essential when it comes to assessing possible circulatory risks. Especially the stomach and the waist is the focus today. Here it is straightforward to measure.
Measure at the thickest point just above the navel. When the waist circumference in men exceeds 102 centimeters, and in women 88centimeters, this is a fat warning sign, regardless of body size: With the waist, the health risk increases.
Men should be careful already at waist circumferences from 98 centimeters, women from 80 centimeters. Since the stomach fat causes many adverse changes in your body. For example, liver, muscle, and adipose tissue cells respond worse to the sugar-lowering hormone insulin .
Then the body needs more insulin. It increases the risk of sugar metabolism disorder such as type 2 diabetes. In the context of obesity, insulin resistance can also cause blood pressure to rise and remain too high.
The body mass index is used to classify the weight. It is calculated by sharing the weight by the square of the height . Obesity starts with a BMI of 25 , from 30 there is obesity.
Since normal or underweight people can develop more belly fat, it always depends on the waist circumference.
Who Is Affected By Hypertension
According to the Robert Koch Institute Berlin, one-third of adult Us have hypertension, i.e., pressure values over 140/90 mmHg.
However, 60% of the two-thirds blood pressure healthy already have values that are not optimal or just below the currently set general limit of 140/90 mmHg .
Even if these, in particular, the latter only marginally, even as high normal values often do not apply as requiring treatment: completely irrelevant they are not. Therefore, they should get checked from time to time.
I already had high blood pressure. I have hypertension. And I think the chemo was just too much for my kidneys. And they went into failure. And that was October 19th of 2018. And the doctor rushed me right to the hospital
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Treatment Of High Blood Pressure
Treatment for HBP depends on its severity and associated risks of developing other diseases. Treatment options include:
Lifestyle changes
- Make and keep appointments to see your doctor for routine check-ups and follow-up tests.
Medications
- ACE inhibitors will help blood vessels relax and open up, leading to a lower blood pressure.
- Angiotensin II receptor blockers will help blood vessels open up, leading to a lower blood pressure.
- Beta blockers will help reduce your blood pressure.
- Alpha blockers will help reduce the arteries resistance, relaxing the muscle tone of the vascular walls.
- Alpha-2 receptor agonists will help reduce blood pressure by decreasing the activity of the sympathetic portion of the involuntary nervous system.
- Calcium channel blockers will help relax and open up narrowed blood vessels, reduce heart rate and lower blood pressure.
- Combined alpha and beta blockers are used as an IV drip for those patients experiencing a hypertensive crisis.
- Central agonists will help decrease the blood vessels ability to tense up or contract.
- Diuretics water pills will help reduce the amount of fluid retention in your body.
- Peripheral adrenergic inhibitors will help reduce blood pressure by blocking neurotransmitters in the brain.
- Vasodilators will help the muscle in the walls of the blood vessels to relax, allowing the vessel to dilate.