Blood Pressure Fit and Healthy

What is Blood Pressure? It is the pressure of the blood flowing through your blood vessels on the walls of the vessels

Biggest Arteriole Artery Capillary Vein Venule Smallest

The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as blood moves through arteries, arterioles(little arteries), capillaries and veins The term blood pressure generally refers to arterial pressure - the pressure in the larger arteries

A sphygmomanometer

Systolic Pressure This is the higher figure It is the pressure exerted on the walls of the artery when the heart is contracting to force blood out It should be about 120mmHg

Diastolic Pressure This is the lower figure This is the pressure when the heart is relaxing to allow blood to flow back in. This should be about 80

Hypertension One in three people has high blood pressure BP of more than 140 over 90. It can be treated but often people do not know they have it. It can cause weak blood vessels to burst – if this happens in the brain it causes a stroke It can also damage organs like the kidney which contain a lot of tiny blood vessels

Here is how high blood pressure can be diagnosed

Low blood pressure This can cause poor blood circulation This may lead to dizziness and fainting as the brain does not get enough oxygenated blood