What is Considered High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure is a condition that affects over one 3rd of adults in America. This disease can result in weakened kidneys, damaged blood vessels and eventually strokes, heart attacks and organ failures.
What is a normal amount of blood pressure and what’s considered high blood pressure? At what point should you be worried or start talking to your doctor about possible treatments? Read on.
The Two Measurements of Blood Pressure
There are two primary numbers to pay attention to: Your systolic blood pressure and your diastolic blood pressure.
The systolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure in your blood vessels when your heart is pumping blood. This number tends to go up as you age.
The diastolic blood pressure is the blood pressure in your veins when your heart is relaxing. In other words, when your heart isn’t exerting extra pressure, what’s your default blood pressure? This number tends to increase until you’re about 55, then it decreases.
These two numbers are usually expressed one after another, systolic first then diastolic. For example, if your blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg, that means your systolic blood pressure is 120 and your diastolic blood pressure is 80. MmHg is the unit of measurement for blood pressure.
When is Your Blood Pressure Too High?
If you have a systolic blood pressure of 140 or above, or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 or above, then you have high blood pressure. 160 or higher systolic or 100+ on diastolic means you have Stage 2 high blood pressure, meaning you should immediately seek medical attention if you haven’t already.
If you have 120 or above systolic blood pressure or a diastolic number of 80 or above, then you have what’s called prehypertension. Prehypertension means that you don’t have high blood pressure and aren’t in any danger immediately, but have a high likelihood of developing high blood pressure as you age.
If your current blood pressure falls into the prehypertension range, it’s generally a good idea to start thinking about changing your diet to one that lowers blood pressure.
Keep in mind that even if you aren’t feeling sick, dizzy or showing any symptoms, that doesn’t mean that your blood pressure isn’t causing damage. Often time’s high blood pressure damage is caused over periods of months and years. When the effects finally show, it may be too late to do anything about it.
Instead, if your blood pressure range is in the prehypertension range or above, then start taking action to change your diet or get medical attention immediately.
To sum it up, a blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg or below is considered normal blood pressure. Between 120/80 and 140/90 is in the prehypertension range. Anything above is considered high blood pressure.