High Blood Pressure - Are You at Risk Or Just Too Indifferent Or Too Scared to Find Out?
We all have bloodpressure, unless of course we are dead, and an alarming number of us have high blood pressure.
So what exactly then makes it high and is there any reason why we should worry if it is? The force your blood puts on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps and moves the blood around your body is known as your blood pressure.
This pressure can be measured and is made up of 2 separate and different readings.
There is the systolic pressure which is the pressure exerted by your blood when your heart beats and is pushing the blood around your cardiovascular network (arteries and veins).
Then there is the diastolic pressure which is the force of your blood measured when your heart is resting in between beats.
Normal pressure measurement is considered to be 120 over 80 or 120/80 as it is commonly written.
Very seldom are there any obvious signs or symptoms that your blood pressure has increased.
This is the very reason it is called the silent killer, but there are factors that can help you decide whether you are at risk or not.
If you are overweight or obese you are definitely at risk.
The more there is of you the more blood is needed to transport oxygen and nutrients throughout your body.
Being overweight means that more and longer lengths of blood vessels are needed to get your blood to where it needs to go.
As with your home plumbing pipes carrying water over increased lengths means an increase in the friction resistance to the liquid travelling through the pipe which ends up restricting or reducing the flow further down the line.
This increased resistance to flow pushes up your blood pressure and you then have the makings of a potentially lethal problem.
How active are you? Do you have a planned program of exercise or maybe you have a gym membership? But it's not much good if you never use it.
If you limit your activity to sitting on the couch watching TV and do no exercise at all you increase your chances of getting high blood pressure because your heart muscles become weak and flabby and have to work harder at pumping that blood around your body all day every day.
There are other factors as well like a genetic predisposition to heart disease and race.
Some races are more prone to heart disease than others.
Alcohol consumption and use of salt are also factors.
So what exactly then makes it high and is there any reason why we should worry if it is? The force your blood puts on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps and moves the blood around your body is known as your blood pressure.
This pressure can be measured and is made up of 2 separate and different readings.
There is the systolic pressure which is the pressure exerted by your blood when your heart beats and is pushing the blood around your cardiovascular network (arteries and veins).
Then there is the diastolic pressure which is the force of your blood measured when your heart is resting in between beats.
Normal pressure measurement is considered to be 120 over 80 or 120/80 as it is commonly written.
Very seldom are there any obvious signs or symptoms that your blood pressure has increased.
This is the very reason it is called the silent killer, but there are factors that can help you decide whether you are at risk or not.
If you are overweight or obese you are definitely at risk.
The more there is of you the more blood is needed to transport oxygen and nutrients throughout your body.
Being overweight means that more and longer lengths of blood vessels are needed to get your blood to where it needs to go.
As with your home plumbing pipes carrying water over increased lengths means an increase in the friction resistance to the liquid travelling through the pipe which ends up restricting or reducing the flow further down the line.
This increased resistance to flow pushes up your blood pressure and you then have the makings of a potentially lethal problem.
How active are you? Do you have a planned program of exercise or maybe you have a gym membership? But it's not much good if you never use it.
If you limit your activity to sitting on the couch watching TV and do no exercise at all you increase your chances of getting high blood pressure because your heart muscles become weak and flabby and have to work harder at pumping that blood around your body all day every day.
There are other factors as well like a genetic predisposition to heart disease and race.
Some races are more prone to heart disease than others.
Alcohol consumption and use of salt are also factors.
Source...