Health: What is Blood Pressure?
This is the first of five posts looking at blood pressure. These will be posted daily, and will conclude with an article on why leading a paleolithic lifestyle can contribute to maintaining a healthy blood presure.
What is Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in the arteries as it is pumped around the body by the heart.
Blood pressure primarily depends on a combination of two factors:
- The force the heart uses to pump blood around the body;
- How relaxed or narrowed the arteries are.
What do the numbers mean?
Blood pressure is always given as two numbers. The first or top number is the systolic pressure: this is the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts (each heartbeat)
The second or bottom number is the diastolic pressure: this is the pressure in the arteries when the heart relaxes between each heartbeat.
The blood pressure is usually measured on a person's arm, just inside the elbow at the brachial artery by a device called a sphygmomanometer.
Normally blood pressure at rest should be equal to or less than 120/80 mm of mercury (mmHg).
Upcoming blog posts:
2. Why is high blood pressure (hypertension) important?
3. What causes hypertension?
4. What can we do to maintain a healthy blood pressure?
5. Will a Paleolithic lifestyle help to lower hypertension?