How Do We Define Hypertension?
Saturday, January 31st, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The problem with high blood pressure today is that it is so widespread and talked about so often that most people do not give it the respect it deserves. The fact is that high blood pressure, or hypertension, is a killer disease and should be treated as such.
Many hundreds of doctors and scientists have spent considerable time and money attempting to describe exactly what a true definition of high blood pressure is.
Over the years there have been a large number of studies performed on this topic which have given the scientists and doctors a wide range of blood pressure values to work with. However the results are often skewed and vary from country to country and even from district to district within a specific country. It has been concluded therefore that the definition of high blood pressure can only be arrived at as a result of continuous observation and experiment.
Normal blood pressure is recognized today much like normal body weight in the sense that the defining level is that which is associated with the greatest projected life expectancy. This is the level at which the heart along with other important elements of the body such as the circulatory system are able to operate under optimum conditions without running the risk of heart disease and other associated conditions.
There are other factors which have to be taken into account when defining high blood pressure and some have to be excluded. For instance, If a healthy person gets then their systolic (or pumping) blood pressure can be expected to rise by perhaps as much as fifty percent because their blood flow rises in response to extreme emotional excitement or energetic activity. But it will not stay high for very long and once the level of excitement subsides your blood pressure also returns to its normal level.
In addition to a systolic (pumping) blood pressure you also have a diastolic (resting) blood pressure which is the more important and is a very good guide in ascertaining whether or not a high reading is a false positive. The reason why the diastolic pressure is important is because it points to the state of your arteries and if you have a high reading it may show that the arteries are narrowed and not allowing the free flow of blood.
It is important to realize that high blood pressure is not in itself a disease but is a key criterion by which doctors can diagnose other illnesses.
Lastly, it is also necessary to understand that hypertension cannot be cured but that it can be controlled very effectively.
TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on many different aspects of blood pressure including the high blood pressure diet and sourcing the best home blood pressure monitors
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