What is low blood pressure? treatment advice

What is low blood pressure? treatment advice 

What is low blood pressure?

Blood pressure in simple terms, it is the force that the heart requires that pushes the blood vessels around the body. BP is generated by the force of the pumping action of the heart and is partly due to the resistance in the blood vessels to blood flow in the body.

Level people blood pressure is expressed as two numbers. The top number is called systolic pressure. The lower number is called the diastolic pressure.

These two numbers are usually written with a slash between them. For example, you could see the numbers written as 120/80. Another common interpretation is to be 100/61.

The systolic number is the maximum achieved heart when it contracts. Diastolic represents the state of relaxation of the heart just before it starts the next phase of pumping.

For most healthy adults, the higher number is somewhere between 90 and 120. The decrease - the diastolic blood pressure number - between 60 and 80.

Current guidelines of normal BP is 120/80. Any higher than 130 or greater than 80 BP is said to be a little high. BP greater than 160 or greater than 90 reading is certainly high.

If you have high levels of BP then you are at increased risk of developing heart disease, kidney disease, hardening of the arteries, stroke or heart attack.

Low blood pressure is another story. It tends not to cause lasting damage to the blood vessels, but it can sometimes cause low blood pressure symptoms or signs, because the flow of blood in the arteries is not sufficient.

The body depends on blood for oxygen in vital organs such as the brain, heart and kidneys. If blood pressure is too low in these organs might not have enough blood.

Unlike hypertension, we normally define BP weak in terms of symptoms and low blood flow is generally not as any one issue in particular. An example of this is that someone may have the number 90/50 and feel quite well then someone else will have the same numbers, but being unable to get up from a chair or bed.