The body's blood pressure is constantly changing and it is very rare to find an individual with a blood pressure reading that is constant. Almost everything we do will have an affect on our blood pressure which will move up and down as we go about our normal day to day business. Simple things such as drinking, mowing the lawn, walking, talking, watching television, standing up, sleeping and just about anything else you can imagine can alter your blood pressure.
While variations in blood pressure are nothing more than a simple fact of life it can however create difficulties for your doctor who needs to be able to make use of blood pressure to monitor general health. The problem therefore is to try to define a level of blood pressure that can be considered as a normal average and then to establish limits above and below this figure that can also be considered as representing the normal range of blood pressure change. The starting for this is to consider the pressure in the arteries of the body as the heart pumps blood throughout the body.
Our blood carries oxygen and a mixture of nutrients to every part of the body through a series of blood vessels starting with the main aorta taking blood from the heart and ending in a mass of tiny capillaries.
The first consideration therefore is exactly how much pressure is needed in the aorta as the blood leaves the heart for it to reach its destination in far flung areas of the body.
Thereafter, the second consideration is how much pressure is needed in the capillaries in order to move the nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body.
Careful study over a number of years shows that the best arterial pressure to deliver blood to every part the body and to facilitate the transfer of nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body is 120 mm Hg. This value represents the average arterial pressure when the heart pumps blood around the body and is often referred to as the systolic pressure.
As with many things in life though a pressure slightly below or above this level is not going to make a lot of difference and your body will continue to work as normal. However, when your blood pressure rises too high or falls too low then you will begin to run into difficulty.
So precisely what are the lower and upper limits within which the average individual should be able to continue operating normally?
Here the edges become a bit blurred and the answer varies from person to person. Nonetheless in general the upper limit for blood pressure in the majority of people will be in the region of 140 mg Hg and the lower limit will be about 90 mg Hg.
Possibly the most important point at which to start however is to establish the level that is right for you and that takes into account things like your age and general health together with your lifestyle. Once you have agreed this figure with your doctor it is then simply a matter of monitoring you blood pressure.
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