Hypertension
Blood pressure is the measure of how hard your blood is pushing against the inside of the arteries throughout your body. If that pressure is too great, you have high blood pressure, or hypertension.
Each heartbeat sends a pressure wave through the bloodstream. The higher number (systolic blood pressure) is the peak of the wave, when your heart contracts (loud “thump”). The lower number (diastolic blood pressure) is the lower “dip” or trough of the wave, when your heart relaxes.
Hypertension is called the “silent killer.”, because most people have no symptoms. Some have occasional headaches, vision problems, dizziness, or shortness of breath. So, doctors make an electrocardiogram (ECG), to read the electric activity of the heart, and analyze blood samples.
Blood pressure is recorded as the systolic number over the diastolic number, and are measured in millimeters of mercury (Hg). You have high blood pressure if 5 blood pressure tests at different days show consistent readings of more than 140 over 90. It is the highest during exercise, physical work, or stress, and the lowest during sleep.
An analysis of 37 worldwide clinical trials confirm that people who track their blood pressure at home are more successful in reducing it than people checked in the doctor’s office.
The researchers contributed the lower readings at home to the doctor’s “white coat” effect, which is known to increase patients’ blood pressure. They estimate that 25% of blood pressure based diagnoses by doctors are incorrect.
“Yes, your blood pressure is back to normal”
