When your heart beats, it pumps blood around your body to give it the energy and oxygen it needs. As the blood moves, it pushes against the sides of the blood vessels. The strength of this pushing is your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is too high, it puts extra strain on your arteries (and your heart) and this may lead to heart attacks and strokes.
How you can tell if you have high blood pressure
Having high blood pressure (hypertension) is not usually something that you feel or notice. It does not tend to produce obvious signs or symptoms. High blood pressure is known as the silent killer. The only way to know what your blood pressure is is to have it measured.
Blood pressure is measured in ‘millimetres of mercury’ (mmHg) and is written as two numbers. For example, if your reading is 120/80mmHg, your blood pressure is ‘120 over 80’.
What do the numbers mean?
Every blood pressure reading consists of two numbers or levels. They are shown as one number on top of the other.
The first or top number is your systolic blood pressure. It is the highest level your blood pressure reaches when your heart beats.
The second or bottom number is your diastolic blood pressure. It is the lowest level your blood pressure reaches as your heart relaxes between beats.
What is normal blood pressure?
The new guidelines announced on November 13, 2017, at an American Heart Association conference in Anaheim, The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and nine other groups redefined high blood pressure as a reading of 130 over 80, down from 140 over 90.
The new guidelines lower the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 million Americans to those who have the condition, which now plagues nearly half of U.S. adults.
Over half of all African-American adults will be classified as having high blood pressure under the new streamlined diagnostic guidelines, illuminating the heavy burden of cardiovascular disease in the population.
Ideally, we should all have a blood pressure below 120 over 80 (120/80). At this level, there is a much lower risk of heart disease or stroke.
If your blood pressure is above 120/80mmHg, you will need to lower it.
Keep your blood pressure low
Even if you do not have high blood pressure, it is important to keep your blood pressure as low as you can. The higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk of health problems.
For example, a blood pressure of 135 over 85 may be “normal” but someone with this reading is twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as someone with a reading of 115 over 75.
It’s recommended that people with high blood pressure try healthier lifestyles. Poor diets, lack of exercise and other bad habits cause 90 percent of high blood pressure.