What Is Blood Pressure?

What is it?

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the inside walls of arteries. Arteries are tiny pipes that carry oxygen rich blood all over throughout your body.

Blood pressure is measured with two numbers:

• Top number = Systolic pressure

  • Pressure when the heart is BEATING

• Bottom number = Diastolic pressure

  • Pressure when the heart is RESTING (in-between heart beats)

3 Main Things Effect Your Blood Pressure:

1. How much blood is being pumped out by your heart (Cardiac Output)

2. How much blood is in your artery at a given point in time (Blood volume)

3. Resistance of your arteries - determined by

   • Flexibility of artery walls

   • Blood viscosity

   • Diameter of the arteries themselves

   • NOTE: Resistance is responsible for your blood pressure NOT dropping to 0 in-between heart beats

Your body has a control mechanism that controls each one of these factors individually that help regulate the blood pressure in your body

What Is The "Normal Range" For a Blood Pressure?

If any of you know me, you know I don’t like to use the word normal, because normal may be different for every individual. However, according to medical guidelines, there are several different ranges for blood pressures as I will put on the screen and we'll talk through each one: (put in divided over format on video)

• "Normal" Range

  • Systolic 90-120

  • Diastolic 60-80

• Elevated

  • Systolic 120-129

  • Diastolic 80-89

• Hypertension Stage 1

  • Systolic 130-139

  • Diastolic 80-89

• Hypertension Stage 2

  • Systolic 140+

  • Diastolic 90+

Anything above this "normal" range is called hypertension (high blood pressure) and anything below this hypotension (low blood pressure)