What Are Blood Pressure Ranges?
Knowing what the figures in a blood pressure reading actually mean is important. There are millions of people who suffer from high blood pressure and if left untreated it can have devastating consequences. Heart attacks and strokes are probably the best known of these but kidney disease and possibly heart failure can occur. There are guidelines for blood pressure ranges available to allow you to compare your own readings and determine where in the range you fall, these can be found on various internet sites.
Blood pressure readings have direct links to how your heart is performing. Blood pressure is created when the heart contracts and relaxes whilst pumping blood round the circulatory system in the body. The peak pressure reading is called the systolic reading and the lowest pressure reading is known as the diastolic reading, both of these are measured in millimetres of mercury. These figures put together will give a blood pressure reading.
The blood pressure range which is seen to be healthy is between 90 and 120 systolic and 50 to 80 for the diastolic reading. For anyone falling into this range it is important that they maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet and still have regular blood pressure checks so that any change can be detected and treated immediately.
Guidelines have recently been published which adds a new category to the blood pressure ranges. This new category is called pre hypertensive. This blood pressure range is between 120-139 systolic and 80-89 diastolic which are at the upper end of the "normal" readings and which may indicate that there may be problems with high blood pressure in the future. It is basically a warning, and great care should be taken with diet and efforts should be made to lower or at the very least maintain these readings with guidance from your doctor.
Anyone who suffers from high blood pressure is put into one of two categories, these are stage one high blood pressure and stage two high blood pressure. The blood pressure ranges associated with stage one are 140-159 systolic and 90-99 diastolic. Any high blood pressure is serious but at stage one it is not life threatening and may be treated purely with change in diet and lifestyle and/or some medication.
Stage two high blood pressure is life threatening and does require immediate treatment in terms of lifestyle change, diet change and exercise regime also one or more medications may be needed to lower the blood pressure. Anyone who falls within the blood pressure range of 160 or more systolic and 100 or more diastolic most definitely has high blood pressure which needs medical attention and careful, regular monitoring.