What Is Blood Pressure and How Is It Measured

The heart is, as we know already, the pump that ejects blood into the blood stream that circulates through our body. When the left ventricle of the heart convulsed, blood is pumped into the arteries that expand in order to accept the incoming blood.

But arteries have a muscle layer which resists to this pressure and so out of them blood is squeezed into smaller vessels of the body. Blood pressure is the size of the resistance of arterial walls.

There are two types of pressure: the maximum and minimum. Maximum pressure occurs when the left heart chamber convulsed; it is called the systolic or top pressure. Minimum pressure occurs just before the next heartbeat and is called the diastolic or lower pressure.

To measure blood pressure, the doctor usually uses one device that contains the mercury column, and it under pressure is rising or falling. The pressure is read in millimeters of mercury column height. The average systolic blood pressure of young people is about 120 millimeters of mercury column. Diastolic pressure is about 80 millimeters of mercury column. It is usually expressed as 120/80.

When the blood pressure in these limits, it ensures regular supply of the body with blood and not doing unnecessary pressure on the walls of blood vessels. But there are many variations of these values, which can be completely normal.

Over the years, blood pressure gradually increases until the sixtieth year of life reaches about 140/87. Many factors affect blood pressure. Overweight people often have a higher pressure than people whose weight is normal. Worry, stress, and even the position of the body, may influence the amount of blood pressure.

High blood pressure (hypertension) is responsible for an average of 7.1 million deaths per year worldwide. On the pressure can be influenced by changing diet, if you want to lower your blood pressure you should be sure to eat enough fruits and vegetables. Also reduce your salt intake – the recommended daily amount is one teaspoon of salt.

With low pressure (called hypotension) becomes dizzy (especially when getting up), fatigue, blurred vision, weakness or fainting. If hypotension is more pronounced and longer lasting, it may cause irregular work of organs due to poor supply of oxygen, and even shock. Blood pressure can raise by increasing the salt intake.