Blood pressure describes the amount of force with which the blood pushes against the blood vessel walls.
- Systolic blood pressure (the first number) indicates how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls when the heart beats.
- Diastolic blood pressure (the second number) indicates how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls while the heart rests between beats.
The mount of force depends on a variety of factors, including how much work is being done by the heart and the elasticity of the blood vessels relative to the force of the blood pushing against them. Blood pressure also varies throughout the day. Having blood pressure that is too low or too high for a prolonged period is unhealthy and can lead to various health problems, including blood clots, strokes, and death.
While 120 over 80 mm of mercury (mmHg) is considered normal blood pressure, anything above 135 over 85 mmHg is considered high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. According to the CDC, about 75 million Americans have high blood, equivalent to 1 in 3 American adults. High blood pressure is sometimes called the “silent killer,” because it often has no symptoms.
Most of the time, it is impossible to identify a cause for hypertension and it is likely due to a still-unidentified genetic predisposition. In 20% of cases, there are other underlying diseases, like benign adrenal tumors or kidney failure. That is one reason it’s so important for people to have their blood pressure checked regularly, in order to detect any potential underlying health problems.
If high blood pressure either remains undetected or is uncontrolled, it can lead to heart attacks, heart failure, strokes, the formation and subsequent bursting of aneurysms (enlarged blood vessels), renal failure, and even dementia.
Fortunately, there are several easy steps people can take to try to prevent high blood pressure, including limiting the amount of sodium (salt) in the diet. Most people do not understand that all the medications on Earth cannot overcome the detrimental effects of a high salt diet. What patients do is more important that what doctors do. Not adding extra salt to food is not enough, since 99% of sodium is already in the food we eat. Avoidance of salty foods (cured meat, canned foods, chips, pickles, fast foods, TV dinners, etc.), is imperative to treating hypertension. (Click here to read about the DASH diet, which helps prevent or treat hypertension.)
Other important ways to improve your blood pressure include maintaining a healthy weight, remaining physically active, limiting your alcohol intake, not smoking and avoiding stimulants. In addition, if you have diabetes, treating your diabetes will help lessen your risk of developing high blood pressure. If your doctor determines that you have high blood pressure despite lifestyle changes, he or she may prescribe antihypertensive drugs to help reduce your blood pressure.
It’s important to know that the second main cause of persistent hypertension despite medications, after eating a high sodium diet, is failing to take the prescribed medications.
