What Is Normal Blood Pressure?

If you’ve had your blood pressure measured recently, it helps to know what is normal blood pressure. When your heart beats, it contracts and relaxes. When it contracts the blood in your arteries pushes hard against the walls of the blood vessels.

When your heart is between beats, there’s still pressure, but that pressure isn’t as high. Blood pressure is measured using a special cuff called a sphygmomanometer. This simple machine measures the pressure in your blood vessels in millimeters of mercury.

Textbook blood pressure is normally 120/80. The top number is your systolic pressure when the heart contracts. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure when the heart is between beats. While this is considered “normal” any pressure above 90/60 but below 120/80 is considered normal also.

When you’re exerting yourself physically or you’re under extreme stress, even people with normal blood pressure may get a high reading. In this case the bottom number usually stays pretty near 80, but the top number may go up.

This is normal and not anything to worry about. The real problem comes with having abnormal blood pressure readings over and over again when you’re at rest. If you’re concerned about your blood pressure, you should talk with your doctor.

When your blood pressure is normal, it’s a good sign that your heart is pretty healthy. The most common type of heart disease is hypertension, the scientific word for high blood pressure. If you’re in the normal range your heart is probably not under too much stress.

Even if your blood pressure is normal, it’s important to participate in activities that help you to keep it normal. For example, you can participate in 30-60 minutes of daily physical activity. This can help you to keep your heart healthy and strong throughout your life.

It’s also a good idea to keep your weight as close to ideal as possible for you. Excess weight can put more pressure on the heart to do its job. Regulating your weight can help you to control blood pressure.

Stress can play a role in blood pressure as well. Do what you can with time management to keep stress low. When stress does come knocking on your door, consider meditation and relaxation exercises to help you stay calm, cool, and collected.

Many people who have good blood pressure think they’re off the hook when it comes to taking care of their heart. But you should also pay attention to your heart rate, cholesterol, and other lifestyle factors. Understanding what is normal blood pressure can help you to keep it that way.

Blood Pressure Ranges

When it comes to your heart health, blood pressure ranges can determine how you intervene in high blood pressure or if you even need to intervene. Let’s take a look at the guidelines for hypertension and healthy blood pressure.

Normal, textbook blood pressure is considered 120/80. You may have blood pressure at or near this measurement and be considered to have healthy blood pressure. Below this may be okay, but if it gets too low there can be dangers.

However, low blood pressure is less of a concern for the overall population because more people suffer from hypertension and is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. But there are different levels of high blood pressure.

If your blood pressure is up to 139/89 you have what’s known as prehypertension. You don’t have high blood pressure yet, but if you let it go it could become too high. It’s important to watch your lifestyle and adopt healthy habits that will help you to keep your heart strong.

From 140/90 to 159/99 is considered stage 1 hypertension. At this point your doctor will usually have you work on changing your lifestyle and then recheck in a few months. If, after a few months of working on lifestyle factors, it doesn’t go down you may need to consider medication.

If your blood pressure is over 160/100, you may need to take more drastic measures. This could require one or more medications in order to lower the pressure. Your doctor will still talk with you about lifestyle changes, though, to make sure you get all the benefits you can.

These blood pressure ranges are pretty standard, but you should talk to your doctor about your specific blood pressure and what it means. You may just need to change some habits or you may need to take a prescription.

If you go on blood pressure medication, it’s still possible that you could lose weight and eat a low sodium diet and eventually get off of medication or at least reduce your dependence on it. You’ll need to keep monitoring your blood pressure on your own and working with your doctor to develop a plan to improve your heart health.

Having one episode of high blood pressure doesn’t mean that you need to get treated for it. If you have a high reading once, keep monitoring it and see if it continues to stay high or if it was just a fluke.

Sometimes your blood pressure can go up when you’re nervous or stressed, but return to normal the rest of the time. Knowing about blood pressure ranges and monitoring your own pressures will help you to be an active participant in your own healthcare.

It’s much better to keep yourself from developing heart disease than to try to keep it from getting worse later.
Continue to research here to learn more about how to have healthy heart tips for your lifetime fitness and health.

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