Posted on May 27, 2016 by Kate Halsall

understanding blood pressure

Last week I was in hospital and I had my blood pressure taken no less than 10 times and every time it was different. It was low in the morning and normal in the evening, and on a couple of occasions it was a little bit high. It got me thinking, we’ve blogged many times in the past with regards to how to help reduce your blood pressure, but how many people understand blood pressure? Do you actually understand your blood pressure reading i.e what the numbers on the screen correlate too?

Well never fear here is a blog about understanding blood pressure and what the numbers mean.

Those Pesky Numbers

There are three numbers which health care and fitness professionals are looking at: SYS or Systolic (the biggest number), DIA or Diastolic (usually the second number down on the screen), and your Pulse or Resting Heart Rate.

  • SYS (systolic). I’ve found that the NHS describes this in the simplest way as “the level of pressure when your heart pumps blood through your arteries and around your body”
  • DIA (diastolic).  Again, thank you NHS for providing the following explanation: “the level of pressure when your heart is resting before it pumps again”
  • Resting Heart Rate. This is the number of times per minute your heart is beating

What Should They Be?

  • SYS. Should be between 120-140
  • DIA. Should be between 60-90
  • RHR. Should be between 60-80 beats per minute

What If They’re Not “Normal”?

Firstly DON’T PANIC! There are many factors which affect blood pressure: age, gender, lack of sleep, stress, alcohol, exercise (fit people generally have a low resting heart rate), smoking, caffeine, nutrition, your weight, room temperature, diabetes and so on. Secondly, if your blood pressure is usually fine, it could just be a one off – what have you done before your blood pressure being taken? Thirdly, worrying about it will only make it worse! If you’re concerned about your blood pressure just speak to your doctor.

Further Reading

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/what-is-blood-pressure.aspx

http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/BloodPressureandyou/Thebasics/Bloodpressurechart

http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/5-ways-control-blood-pressure-without-medication/

http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/reduce-high-blood-pressure-through-resistance-training/