Blood Pressure
By Taximan, Thu Dec 8th

What is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is a measurement of the pressure exerted by thecirculating blood on the walls of the arteries, veins andchambers of the heart. The pressure of blood is measured in thecontext of systolic and diastolic activities. When theventricles in the heart contract, it is termed as a systolicactivity, while the relaxing ventricles mark a diastolicactivity.

The pressure of blood is highest during the systole activity andlowest during the diastole activity. The unit of measuring bloodpressure is millimeters. A normal reading is120/80 mmHg.

A normal healthy person maintains the reading of120/80 mmHg. A deviation from this normal reading can result ina disorder. There are basically two abnormalconditions of blood pressure. They are known as high bloodpressure or hypertension and low or hypotension.

High Blood Pressure/ Hypertension

A person is known to suffer from high when theirmeasurement of increases over that of a normalreading. A normal is 120/80 mmHg. When this bloodpressure increases to, say 140/ 90 mmHg, the person is known tohave high blood pressure.

High is often termed as 'a silent killer'. Youmight be suffering from a high for a long periodof time and not know it at all. When a person develops highblood pressure, it usually lasts for lifetime.

Why High Blood Pressure?

Your heart pumps the blood and supplies it to the various organsof your body via arteries. The arteries, when leaving yourheart, narrow into arterioles. The arterioles further narrowthemselves into capillaries. These capillaries supply oxygen andnutrients to the various body organs.

Due to certain nerve impulses, the arteries become dilated orcontracted. If the arteries become contracted, the passage ofblood is hampered and it increases the pressure of blood. Thecondition causes high or hypertension. Thiscondition strains your heart and can even damage your bloodvessels. If the vessels get damaged, the blood supply canfurther affect various body organs connected to the damagedvessels.

The human body generally bears and handles this sudden increaseof pressure for a long period of time. This is one of the solereasons for the fact that you can live your whole life, withoutany ill-effects or symptoms, from high blood pressure.

Two Forms of High

There are two forms of high blood pressure, essentialhypertension and secondary hypertension. Around 95 % ofhypertension cases are related to essential hypertension. Thecause of essential hypertension is multifold though.

There are several factors which result in essentialhypertension. One of the major factors is high salt intake.Other factors that can contribute to the cause of essentialhypertension are tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity,diabetes mellitus, a sedentary lifestyle and genetic causes.

Secondary hypertension amounts to at least 5 % of the cases ofhypertension. The factors contributing to secondary hypertensionare pregnancy, a slow pulse, drugs, kidney diseases, certaintypes of cancers, malformed aorta and aortic vale disease.

High largely remains undetected in its firststage of occurrence. A person would probably never know aboutit. But if the condition of high prolongs, it cancause serious damages to the various body organs. High bloodpressure can directly affect the person in the form of kidneyfailure, congestive heart failure or heart attack.

Low Blood Pressure/ Hypotension

In the medical terms, low is called hypotension.A person is said to have low disorder, if hisblood pressure falls below the normal reading of 120/80 mmHg.

Why Low Blood Pressure?

There are many causes of low blood pressure. Among the commoncause include acute illness. The condition can be characterizedwith the symptoms such as severe blood loss, infection, fluidloss or damage

to the heart. The age-factor plays an importantrole in low blood pressure. Increasing age causes your arteriesto stiffen and cause a drop in the pressure of blood.

Damage to adrenal glands can also lead to low blood pressureconditions. Damage to adrenal glands affects the production ofaldosterone in your body. This hormone controls the salt amountsin the body. If the aldosterone hormone gets affected, it leadsto the loss of salt from your body, further resulting in lowblood pressure. This causes dizziness when you stand up. Lowblood pressure can also be caused due to the usage of diuretics.

A person with low shows symptoms of chest pain,headache, prolonged diarrhea or vomiting. The person alsosuffers from burning sensation while urination, stiff neck, highfever and irregular heartbeat. The person, at times, suffersfrom shortness of breath and a cough with phlegm.

Normal is healthy!

Neither high blood pressure, nor low is good foryour body and health. You should get your checkedregularly for either of these two disorders. The propertreatment and control of your will definitelyenable you to live a healthy and happy life!

About the author:Taximan writes articles on a number of different topics. Formore information on issues please visithttp://www.blood-pressure-resources.com/bloodpressure/ and foradditional related articles please visit thefollowing article pagehttp://www.blood-pressure-resources.com/bloodpressure-articles/