Defining Hypertension
December 4th, 2008
The problem with high blood pressure nowadays is it’s so common and talked about so frequently that many people don’t appear to treat it with the “respect” it deserves. The fact is high blood pressure or hypertension (to give it its medical name) is a killer and should be treated as such.
Many doctors and scientists have spent a great deal of time money and effort trying to define exactly what a true definition of Hypertension is.
There have been many human population studies performed on this subject which have given the scientists and doctors a wide range of blood pressure values. However the results are usually skewed as invariably the results differ from country to country and even from district to district within a specific country. Therefore it’s been concluded that the definition of hypertension can only be arrived at through constant observation and experimentation.
Normal blood pressure is recognized in a similar way to a normal body weight. In other words, the defining level is that which is associated with the greatest chance of life expectancy. This is the level at which the heart and other important functions of the body such as the circulatory system are able to continue under optimum conditions without running the risk of heart disease and other related disorders.
There are other considerations to be taken into account when defining hypertension or high blood pressure and some have to be excluded. For instance If a healthy person was to become excited, their systolic blood pressure can be expected to rise by as much as fifty percent. This is because their blood flow increases in response to their extreme emotional excitement or any type of energetic exercise. However it doesn’t stay high for long, because once the level of excitement has gone down, the blood pressure also reduces back down to its normal level.
One way of recognising this as a normal reaction is to look at the diastolic reading of the blood pressure. If it doesn’t rise but stays constant throughout, it can be safely said this blood pressure is within normal limits.
As the diastolic pressure is the more important of the two readings, it is an excellent guide to ascertaining whether a high reading is a false positive or not. The reason the diastolic pressure is the most important is because it reflects the state of the person’s arterioles. If a person has a high reading, this means their arterioles are constricted with the channels less free flowing than they should be.
A person with a blood pressure reading of 170/110 or above will probably experience severe headaches, fatigue and/or dizzy spells. If someone suffers with a blood pressure which reads 230/130, then they are extremely likely to develop serious medical problems such as heart disease, stroke and other conditions.
Hypertension is not a disease in itself, but an important criterion by which doctors can diagnose or predict other illnesses. It cannot be cured as such, but it can be very well controlled.
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