Blood pressure is the force passed on by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels. There are two values distinguished at the blood pressure - systolic and diastolic pressure values. Systolic, also known as “upper” blood pressure is the pressure as the heart beats, while diastolic, also known as “lower” pressure is the pressure measured as the hear rests between beats.
Understanding the cardiovascular system
Heart is the most important muscle in human’s body because it pumps blood and keeps it in motion so it can reach all of the vital organs and tissues: brain, kidneys, liver, muscles, skin, etc. Healthy heart in normal conditions beats 60-80 per minute. What happens in every beat is that heart contacts and presses the blood into circulation (systole pressure), then relaxes and fills with blood (diastole pressure) to be pumped out in the next beat. Blood travels through arteries reaching the organs and tissues. Aorta is the largest artery in the body, situated at the left ventricle of the heart. It extends as far as to the abdomen. The main role this elastic artery plays in cardiovascular system is to distribute oxygenated blood to all parts of the body. The blood pressure is highest in the aorta, and it weakens as we go further from aorta to arteries, arterioles and capillaries.
Measuring the blood pressure
Every blood ejection boosts the pressure so that we can feel it as a pulse in typical spots: wrists or carotid arteries. Pulse often changes due to a number of factors such as posture, breathing, sleep or stimulation, and in dependence of the day time.Lowest blood pressure readings are detected in sleep while it reaches the highest values if one is physically active or mentally aggravated. In these cases it is perfectly normal to have fluctuations of blood pressure. Blood pressure will drop to its normal level quickly as the stress or efforts clear away.Blood pressure is measured with a blood pressure cuff and recorded as two numbers that represent systolic and diastolic values. High blood pressure is defined by readings over 140/90.
Abnormal readings
Abnormal blood pressure also known as hypertension, is a condition that typically shows no symptoms, and most of the people don’t even know they have high blood pressure. This condition is often called "the silent killer" because symptoms develop little by little and only way to know if the patient suffers from high blood pressure, is to visit a medical office and request a measuring. Uncontrolled or poorly treated hypertension may lead to serious complications such as: heart attack, kidney failure, artery disease etc.
Your thoughts on this
Loading...