Blood Pressure Readings - Prevent A Stroke!
Blood Pressure - What Are You Doing About Yours?
by Christian Goodman
The medical term for high blood pressure is ‘hypertension’. As a general rule, you’re considered to be ‘hypertensive’ if your blood pressure is consistently above the ideal 120/80. Some people are genetically predisposed for having high blood pressure, but there are other factors that often contribute to it, regardless of your genes.
To make you better understand high blood pressure or hypertension, you should know what hypertension really is. When your blood pressure is taken, what is actually measured is the amount of pressure your blood is exerting against the walls of your blood vessels. When you get a higher number, it means that more pressure is being forced against those walls.
Imagine a balloon with water being filled in it. When more water is being put in the balloon, it stretches out to contain the waterup to a certain point. You will see the balloon thinning out as it gets fuller, and eventually breaks if you continue putting water into it.
If you allow your blood pressure to get high and remain there unchecked, your vessels will suffer the same fate as the overfilled balloon. They can and will eventually burst. The location of the burst vessel determines the severity of the results. If it’s a brain vessel, you can have a stroke. If it’s a vessel that feeds blood to the heart, you can have a heart attack or suffer complete heart failure.
This is why high blood pressure is often called the ’silent killer’. You may feel fine and have no symptoms whatsoever…until the pressure becomes so great that it causes a life-threatening episode.
The top number of a blood pressure reading is called the systolic pressure. This is how much pressure is within the blood vessels with each pump or ‘beat’ of your heart as it forces blood out. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure. This number represents how much pressure exists within the blood vessels in between beats, when you heart is momentarily at rest.
This is the reason why doctors are more critical of the bottom number. If your diastolic pressure is over 80, and especially once it gets over 90, it means that a great amount of pressure is being exerted on your vessels even though your heart is not working, or is at rest. With high blood pressure, the spurting force of the blood as it leaves the heart the next time could be the one that proves to be too much.
So how do you lower your blood pressure? If you are overweight, lose those excess pounds. If your are overly stressed, avoid and eliminate the causes of stress. If you are smoking, stop. And if you are sedentary, exercise more.
Or try something a little easier, just as effective and even quicker, my Hypertension Program I created to help reduce your chance of heart attack or stroke by lowering your blood pressure to acceptable levels. It doesn’t involve drastic lifestyle changes or hours of sweating in a gym.
It is composed of simple blood pressure exercises that you can do easily, but the result is nothing short of life-saving.