What is High Blood Pressure?
Is this what having an elevated blood pressure is? Here's a good simple definition: Elevated blood pressure or hypertension is a condition where the force exerted by your blood against the internal walls of your arteries is consistently above the normal blood pressure range. Hypertension and High Blood Pressure are exactly the same thing. Approximately one third of all adults have some form of hypertension. This incidence increases as people age. For example, only thirty percent of individuals in their seventies will have a normal blood pressure reading. Of that one third of all adults who have elevated blood pressure.....well....one third of them don't know that they have it!
So What? Well, let's think about this for a moment purely from an engineering perspective. You're running a closed pressurized fluid filled system consisting of a pump device, some end point components and a hose network connecting everything together. What do you think will happen to the complete system if you continually run it at high pressure, outside of the manufactures specifications? Either the pump, the hose network or your end point components will fail far earlier than the manufacturer and design team ever intended. This will happen simply because none of the components were designed to withstand constant, continual above normal pressure. It's the same with your body. Consistently above normal blood pressure is associated with... High blood pressure has also been linked to neovascular glaucoma a serious eye condition that requires specialist medical care. If you know that you have high blood pressure...you can take measures to reduce it so that you are operating within an acceptably safe range.
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A blood pressure reading is created by two forces The first force is the pressure created by the left ventricle of the heart contracting and squeezing its contents of freshly oxygenated blood out of the ventricle and into the arteries of your body. The second force is created by the amount of resistance encountered by the blood in your arteries as it is forced into the arterial system. Also, how liquid your blood is..its viscosity, and the diameter and length of your arteries all have a part to play in the overall pressure in the 'system'. As your body ages...or disease processes become more evident your left ventricle may not function as well as it previously has and so your hearts ability to function correctly as a pump can become impaired. Additionally your arteries become less elastic as you age and in many people atherosclerotic deposits start to build up on the inside wall of the arteries resulting in a narrower diameter or lumen with which the blood can pass through. Reduced elasticity in your artery walls equates to a reduced cross-sectional area in your arteries when your left ventricle contracts and pumps your blood....this elevates your blood pressure. All these factors interplay and result in your specific blood pressure..or..your usual blood pressure reading.
Blood pressure and the garden hose Think about what happens when you connect a garden hose to a tap...the uncoiled hose lying on the ground.
Normal adult blood pressure is assessed by evaluating two measurements and determining if they fit within specific ranges.
Measurement One: Systole (sist-olly). Is the big number and tells you the pressure in the arterial system at the time your left ventricle contracts Measurement Two: Diastole (die-ast-olly). Is the smaller number and tells you the pressure in the arterial system when the left ventricle is relaxed - between beats. You could call this a residual system pressure...when 'nothing' is happening. Your blood pressure will fall within one of the following categories... What is normal blood pressure? Click here for help Understanding Blood Pressure Results
Essential Hypertension or Primary Hypertension When there is no identifiable cause of your high blood pressure it is called Essential Hypertension or Primary Hypertension. Around ninety five percent of high blood pressure cases are essential or primary in nature. Secondary Hypertension When high blood pressure is clearly related to a specific cause..such as kidney disease, a narrowing in the Aorta or dysfunction of the Adrenal glands it is called secondary hypertension.
The associated risks of high blood pressure certainly warrant regular checks. Putting in place measures that allow good management of hypertension once a record of consistent results has been established is the smart thing to do. Contact your health care professional today and begin regular monitoring of your blood pressure.
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