What
Causes High Blood Pressure
&
How Is It Measured
"Learn
What To Look For And What You Might Be Dealing With"
What Exactly Is Blood
Pressure
According to the American Heart
Association (AHA), about 65 million Americans over the age of 20 have
high blood pressure. That's about one in three adults in the United
States. Only about 63 percent of those with high blood
pressure are even aware that they have it.
The reason so many people don't know
they have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is that
there aren't really any clear symptoms of hypertension. In fact,
according to the AHA, the cause of 90 to 95 percent of the cases of
high blood pressure in America isn't known.
So why should a person worry if he or
she has high blood pressure? Hypertension raises your
risk for other
health problems including heart attacks and strokes. In
2003, more than
52,000 Americans died because of complications related to high blood
pressure. The rate of death from high blood pressure increased nearly
30 percent between 1993 and 2004.
It's important to understand what
blood pressure is before you can know why it is vital to do something
about your high blood pressure.
Blood pressure is basically the force
exerted on the arteries by the blood as it passes through them. Someone
with high blood pressure has blood that is putting higher- than-normal
pressure on the arteries, which puts more stress on the body.
The heart has to work so hard to get
the blood pumped through those arteries that it can actually enlarge
and damage the heart, eventually causing heart attacks, strokes,
aneurysm and other heart problems if left untreated.
How is Blood Pressure
Measured?
A healthy heart usually beats 60 to 70
times per minute when a person is at rest. The blood's pressure is
different depending on whether the heart is beating or at rest. A blood
pressure reading is actually a measurement of both of these numbers.
The measure of blood
pressure while
the heart is beating is known as systolic
pressure, while the pressure
when the heart is at rest is called diastolic
pressure. Your blood
pressure when you get it measured at the doctor's office is reported as
one number "over" another, such as 120/80. The top number is your
systolic pressure, while he bottom is your diastolic pressure.
The actual measuring of blood pressure
is done with the help of a blood pressure cuff, which most people are
familiar with from routinely having their blood pressure taken. This
device includes a cuff that is secured around the upper arm and two
rubber tubes, one of which goes to the rubber bulb that inflates the
cuff, and the other which goes to a reservoir containing mercury. The
effect of the pressure on the mercury is actually how the blood
pressure is measured.
As air is blown into the cuff, the
doctor or nurse taking your blood pressure will listen for the pulse.
When he or she first hears the pulse, the systolic measurement is
recorded. When the sound of the pulse recedes, the doctor then takes
the diastolic reading. The unit of measure is actually millimeters of
mercury, reflecting the use of mercury in the test.
"If You Finally Want To Lower
Your Blood Pressure, Once And For All, You Need To Know What Causes
High Blood Pressure! Learn All The Facts Before You Take Any Action."
High Blood
Pressure Remedy Report
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