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High blood pressure, which is also known professionally as hypertension, is a condition where the pressure of the blood flowing through your arteries is considerably higher than normal. Most medical professionals will state that the starting point for people more than eighteen years of age is 120/80. However, there are causes that could make those readings not normal. Age is one of them.

The first figure is the systolic arterial blood pressure, which means that it is the pressure read when your heart contracts, beats or pumps out blood. The second number is while the heart sucks in blood, ready to pump it out again.

These statistics are given in millimetres of mercury and are written as mmHg. Higher readings of either of these figures can indicate a difficulty. One thing to make patent here is that it is impossible to guess or estimate the pressure of your blood without using either a sphygmomanometer ( the one your physician uses in the surgery), which is the gold standard for blood pressure monitoring devices or a home blood monitoring machine.

Blood pressure can become affected by many things such as: time of the day, age, weight, height, mood, fitness, diet, level of activity and stress, which may or may not be part of ‘white coat syndrome’ amongst others. ‘White coat syndrome’ is the worry felt by individuals when they have to be examined by a doctor. This applies to children more than to any other age grouping.

Blood pressure also changes during the day, so in order to get an precise reading, it is necessary to take several all at the same time of day. It is also prudent to wait 45 minutes after drinking caffeine or ten minutes after arriving before taking a reading.

So, what is standard? The real answer, although it is maddening, is that only a physician can tell you, however for an adult, they say that it is 120/80, for an adolescent it is 110/70 and for an infant it is 80/45.

However, while measuring and evaluating the blood pressure of adolescents, you have to remember that age, sex and height count. Therefore, an adolescent is said to have high blood pressure if the blood pressure is more than that of ninety percent of people of his/her age, gender and height.

The causes of hypertension are classified as primary or secondary. Primary means that it is all your body’s fault and secondary means that the reason is something else, say, medication. Hypertension can also be the result of race or other hereditary reasons. Males of African ancestry are especially at risk.

One of the items you can buy to keep you knowledgeable about your family’s blood pressure concerns is a home blood pressure monitor. These devices are fairly cheap yet are very accurate, so buy an automatic digital monitor and take it to your GP to be sure that it is accurate and get the readings that are pertinent to all the members of your family.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of topics, but is currently involved with work on the cause of high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you have a particular medical condition or if you have reached a particular age, you may be thinking of monitoring your blood pressure at home yourself. Yes, you can always go to the physician to get it done, but that costs time (and in most countries, money) which you may not have. So, what about checking your blood pressure at home?

How accurate are blood pressure monitors for home use? The fact is that contemporary monitors are very accurate, but you ought to still keep up regular visits to your physician, who will validate the findings of your home monitor.

If your medical doctor has determined that you have high blood pressure (hypertension), he or she will probably recommend lifestyle changes or / and medication. It is very problematic to introduce lifestyle alterations, so if you do, monitoring your hypertension at home and seeing changes can be very satisfying, but it can also work the other way around if the changes do not appear to be having any effect.

Whilst you are deciding which home blood pressure monitor to purchase, there are two basic options: the aneroid and digital monitors. The digital monitors have either an automatic or a hand-pumpable cuff.

The other types are finger or wrist monitors, yet these ought to be avoided as they give fairly erratic or inaccurate readings and they are a lot more expensive too. If you do buy one of these monitors, take it with you to your medical doctor’s and compare its performance against a sphygmomanometer, which is considered the gold standard of blood pressure monitors.

So, let us take for granted, that you purchase a proper monitor with a cuff, the first thing to do to make certain maximum accuracy is to get a cuff that fits you properly. This is not usually difficult, yet if you are big or small, the instruments within the cuff might not be able to give an accurate reading.

If you want an accurate reading, you ought to wait at least 45 minutes after drinking caffeine before taking a reading. In fact, you should sit quietly for at least ten minutes, before taking any reading. Other precautions are to go to the bathroom first, not to have smoked or to have taken any alcohol recently. In addition, strap the cuff at least an inch above the crease of your elbow.

You will be hoping for a reading below 120/80 which is thought to be ‘normal’. Readings between normal and 140/90 point toward prehypertension and denote that you need to take some action to avoid entering ‘Stage One Hypertension’, which is anything more than this reading.

Modern home digital monitors over a certain cost are highly accurate. The digital home monitor that I use was $100 four years ago, so it should be cheaper now. It was tested against a sphygmomanometer (the sort doctors use) and it was always within the constraints of accuracy prescribed by the American National Standard for Electronic or Automated Sphygmomanometers. Look for that warranty, if you purchase a home monitor.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on how to read blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you are concerned about your blood pressure getting too high, you will almost certainly go to your physician to seek advice. Your doctor will invariably want you to make some lifestyle changes or / and take medication if this does not have an effect. Making lifestyle alterations is the first tactic, but it does not always work. It normally does, but just not always.

However, it is vital to strive to reduce your blood pressure, also called hypertension, before you go on tablets. Lots of people are of the belief that once your body relies on medication to moderate its hypertension, you will never be able to wean yourself off the tablets. This is what my GP told me. Therefore, if it goes against your personal philosophy to take tablets, now is the time to do something about it.

The first thing to do is quit smoking and if you regularly drink too much alcohol, to cut back on that too, as both actions will have the effect of raising your blood pressure. Adopting these measures will also have knock-on effects for the remainder of your body. You will be fitter in general by not smoking at all and not drinking very much.

The next thing to do is to raise your level of daily activity. Do you take any exercise at all? If not, you will be surprised at how much two thirty-minute sessions of light exercise will help. Walk for thirty minutes in the morning and evening or replace one walk for thirty minutes gardening or swimming.

Diet is another manner of beating off the hypertension tablets. Salt, or sodium as it is frequently referred to, is a major cause of hypertension, usually because it encourages water retention. So, cutting back on salt or following a sodium depleted diet can have a major effect on your blood pressure.

Try substituting something else for salt: more pepper, a mixture of some other herbs or simply leave it out altogether. After a couple of weeks you will not notice, except that everyone else’s cooking will taste really heavily over-salted! I did this fairly successfully.

Add more fresh fruit and vegetables to your diet, because that will also reduce your hypertension. Eating less fat and red meat will also help. Stress is a main factor in hypertension, try to relax a bit more and possibly take up meditation or yoga.

If you are on medication, it is possible that the drugs are raising your blood pressure. If you think that this might be the case, take your drugs to the physician and ask his opinion. You may be able to replace some of them. Some of the drugs that can have an adverse effect are: oral contraceptives, steroids, anti-depressants and cold / flu medicines.

You will notice that lots of these methods for reducing your (possible) hypertension are related, so if you are an over-weight, inactive smoker who enjoys a drink, you can do a great deal by remedying that and your pressure will fall and you will become healthier in other ways as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on the cause of high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you would like to check your blood pressure at home, you will require a blood pressure monitor. These monitors are not of necessity very expensive but are within the budget of most households. There are in essence two sorts of home monitor: aneroid and digital.

The aneroid monitor has a dial-type gauge and you read off your blood pressure statistics from that. It also has a cuff, which you wrap about your arm and which you pump up with a rubber bulb. The digital monitors also use a cuff, but it can be manually or automatically blown up. The results are read from a small screen. The choice is yours, but most individuals prefer the automatic digital monitor.

An aneroid home monitor is portable and requires neither batteries nor electricity so is somewhat cheaper than the digital version. It also has a stethoscope built into the cuff for easy monitoring. A problem could arise in raucous surroundings or if the user is hard of hearing. Someone with arthritic hands or fingers might have problems squeezing the bulb too.

Digital monitors are more expensive, but they are more well-liked too despite that, because they can be entirely automatic. The screen is also easier to read and some devices come with a small printer to produce a physical record of your readings. Other digital home monitors have a memory.

The one I use has three memories of thirty slots each so that you can compare records over a month. Having three memories means that you can monitor and record readings for three separate people or three separate time slots for one person over the period of a month. If you choose three time slots they could be morning, noon and night, as blood pressures vary during the day.

Whichever type of monitor you decide on, make certain that the cuff is the right size for you. Be especially cautious if you have very substantial or very thin arms. Check the age range for the monitor too. Mine says for use only on people more than 18 years, yet does not say why.

If electricity or batteries is ever likely to become a difficulty, then the automatic digital home monitor may not be for you, although you may be able to rig it up to photovoltaic cells to exploit the sun’s rays.

Neither of these units are difficult to use, when you know how, so be sure that the instruction book does not look as if it was translated by machine. It is of course vital to know how to take precise readings and how to interpret them. In order to check the accuracy of your device it is worth taking it with on your next visit to your physician.

You can check your readings against those of his sphygmomanometer, which is thought of as the gold standard of blood monitoring devices. Your doctor will also be able to tell you what your systolic and diastolic pressures ought to be.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on how to read blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you have reason to be concerned about your blood pressure, you should begin monitoring it yourself at home. High blood pressure or hypertension is known as ‘The Silent Killer’ because you cannot know whether you have it unless you measure it. You cannot guess or just feel it. First of all, you should talk to your doctor and he will give you some figures, then you can buy a blood pressure monitor and keep an eye on your condition.

When you are given your blood pressure reading by either your physician or your machine, you will be given two figures, say 120/80.

The first number is your systolic blood pressure. The systolic pressure is while your heart ‘beats’ or contracts, pumping your blood around you body.

The second number is while your heart expands, sucking blood back into itself. This is the diastolic blood pressure. These numbers are of the blood pressure in your arteries.

There are four categories that your blood pressure readings can fall into. The first is normal and it is generally accepted that that means readings below 120/80. These numbers relate to a healthy person and can be achieved by almost anyone by keeping a healthy active lifestyle.

The second stage is called ‘Prehypertension’ and relates to blood pressures between ‘normal’ and 140/90. This is the warning stage that you ought to be doing something to decrease your blood pressure. This could mean: a change of diet; drinking less alcohol, tea or coffee; losing weight; taking more exercise; smoking less or giving up smoking altogether.

The third stage is called ‘Hypertension Stage One’ and is reflected by figures between prehypertension and 160/100. If you get into this stage then you really have to see your physician and he will recommend significant changes to your lifestyle along the lines stated above or / and he will put you on tablets.

The fourth stage is called ‘Hypertension Stage Two’ and is anything above 160/100. This is fairly dangerous and your GP will want to get you to make radical alterations to your lifestyle and / or take medication which could be for the rest of your life. If you reach this stage go to your GP’s as soon as you can.

Whilst you are talking about your blood pressure with your doctor, make certain you tell him about any other medicine you are taking, because some medication will raise blood pressure too. Examples of medication that can raise your blood pressure are: anti-depressants, oral contraceptives and anti-flu or anti-cough treatments.

There are other things that can affect blood pressure too. lack of sleep is one. Do you have a new-born baby, a sick child, money problems, sleep apnoea or a snoring spouse that inhibit you from sleeping properly?

Fear, anger and anxiety are also reasons for high blood pressure. So is constipation, drinking too much and smoking. So, before you let your physician prescribe medication to reduce your blood pressure, make sure he is aware of all your circumstances.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on how to read blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

Whether you are trying to reduce your high blood pressure or whether you are attempting to stave of having high blood pressure, there are a couple of things that you can do. However, just like giving up smoking or drinking, it involves lifestyle alterations which are always very difficult to instigate. Essentially, safely lowering high blood pressure involves exercise, diet and changing habits.

This article will give pointers for safely lowering high blood pressure, none of which present any danger to you unless I mention them in this piece.

The first thing to do, if you are worried about your blood pressure (BP), is to buy a BP monitor. They are not expensive and they are very comforting. Sure, you can go to your GP to have your BP checked, but there are reasons why this approach is not accurate.

For example, there is something called the ‘white coat effect’, which means that people who are made anxious by doctors can show a 25-50 point higher reading than is the actual case. However, you ought to take your BP monitor to your GP to check it with the one there.

Once you identify what your BP should be for your age and you have the ability to get an accurate measurement of your BP, you are in a position to check your progress in decreasing it.

The first thing to do is normalize your weight. In order to do this, you will almost certainly need to lose weight and to do this there are two tactics, both of which you ought to take. The first is exercise and the second is diet. The exercise element does not have to be strenuous – my medical doctor told me to walk thirty minutes each morning and each evening.

The diet part is the only advice I will give that requires checking with your GP. Sodium or table salt is positively linked to water retention, weight and high blood pressure. However, giving up salt can get perilous if you have certain complications (especially thyroid) or if you live in a hot country. Therefore, check the sodium diet with your GP.

If you smoke or drink alcohol to excess that will increase your BP. Maybe it never did while you were younger, but as your body gets older, it certainly will. Smoking and drinking to excess regularly will elevate your BP. No question of it.

Cut down on heavy foods like fatty meat. Not give up, but attempt to substitute more fresh vegetables and fruit. This can be integrated into your diet easily enough.

Mood has an effect on your BP, so endeavor to stay calm. This might mean taking up relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga, but it could also only mean watching a film, going for a walk or listening to some classical music.

Swimming is very relaxing for me and many others too. It is a way of relaxing and fighting the flab at the same time. Furthermore, coupled with some of the other suggestions for safely lowering high blood pressure might help keep you off tablets for the remainder of your life.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.