What Do Blood Pressure Numbers Mean And Why Should You Care?

Blood Pressure Numbers – Understanding What They Mean

Medical professionals use blood pressure numbers made up of the systolic (top) number and the diastolic (bottom) number. Knowing what your blood pressure numbers mean is very important, and will help you to work with your doctor to manage your health.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is often called the “silent killer” because there are often no symptoms to warn you of a problem in advance. And a  lot of people wonder why they should even care about high blood pressure. But treating high blood pressure lessens the risks of other issues like diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

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What Should Your Blood Pressure Numbers Be?

Your blood pressure should be 120/80. That’s read and stated as ‘one-twenty over eighty’. Blood pressure is measured with two numbers, systolic and diastolic. What does that mean?

Systolic Blood Pressure: This is the top number and this measurement measures the pressure of the force that it takes to push the blood through those vessels when your heart beats. More than 180 you must call 911.

Diastolic Blood Pressure:  This reading, the bottom number, has to do with the pressure in the arteries that it takes to pump your arteries with blood. If your diastolic pressure gets higher than 120 you need to call 911. 

What the Readings Mean

When your doctor or nurse reads your blood pressure, they’re looking for it to be less than 120/80, which is normal. Here’s the breakdown:

• Normal: Less than 120 / 80
• Prehypertension: 120-139 / 80-89
• High blood pressure stage 1: 140-159 / 90-99
• High blood pressure stage 2: 160 or higher / 100 or higher

How Your Blood Pressure Is Taken

The process of taking your blood pressure is very simple and safe. Usually, the nurse or the nurse’s assistant does it. You can even do it at home with a home system that you can buy relatively inexpensively. Ensure you order the right size for your arm.

Usually, they use an automatic system, or they might use a cuff and stethoscope to listen to your blood moving through your veins and arteries. When they inflate the pressure cuff higher than your pressure, it tightens and measures. When the cuff deflates, they’ll measure the diastolic pressure. That’s why the systolic comes first and the diastolic number comes second.

Sometimes you may need to take the blood pressure lying down or standing. The reason is some conditions improve or get worse depending upon how you’re sitting, standing, or lying down. This additional information can help your health care professional deal with your systems in the best way. Plus, sometimes people get high blood pressure simply from being in the doctor’s office due to nerves.

Why Do You Need To Know Your Numbers?

Understanding the numbers for your blood pressure test is important so that you know what to do to treat yourself. Different issues point to different reasons.

When your doctor sees that you have high blood pressure, they’ll look at your history. If it’s never happened, they’ll ask you if you’ve had a high-pressure reading elsewhere that they don’t know about and when. This can give them some clues, and they may order more tests. Depending on how high, they may want to monitor you again, or they may feel it’s serious enough to either prescribe medication now or send you to the ER.

High Blood Pressure

The main reason high blood pressure causes problems is that over time the wear and tear on your arteries and vessels will become apparent and start showing up as illness. That illness may show up as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and stroke.

Sadly, many of these issues seem to happen overnight. That’s why this disease, high blood pressure or hypertension, is often called the silent killer. Count yourself lucky if you do get a high blood pressure reading without obvious signs first so that you can address your lifestyle issues and get healthier.

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