Blood Pressure

 Print This Post

Gender – Premenopausal women tend to have lower blood pressures than men of the same age, although the difference between the sexes becomes less apparent over the age of 50 years. This is because, before the menopause, women are relatively protected from heart disease by the female hormone oestarogen. Oestrogen levels fall after the menopause and women start to catch up with men in terms of developing BP and heart disease.

 

What is High Blood Pressure or Hypertension?

22.     The medical term for high blood pressure is hypertension. Hypertension can be of two types, namely “primary” or essential i.e. genetic or unexplained and “secondary” i.e. result of other medical problems. About 95% of people with elevated BP have primary hypertension and there is no underlying cause as it seems to come on its own, perhaps because of problems with heart or blood vessels. The rest 5% have secondary hypertension due to something else, such as obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, hormonal disorders, certain drugs, or excessive alcohol consumption.

 

23.     Any dividing line between so called high BP and normal BP must be purely arbitrary as each person’s body reacts differently to the same set of factors affecting the BP. Normal BP is the average for the populations as a whole. Even if your BP is normal, you may still be at a higher risk than someone, whose BP is persistently below the normal level. Therefore, the most useful definition of hypertension may be the level of BP where lowering of BP is necessary to prevent the individual developing complications like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease etc.

 

24.     Every person should know his/her BP and should understand what numbers mean. The classification of BP, based on the law of averages, for persons over 18 years of age is as given below.

	Systolic Pressure Range (mmHg)	Diastolic Pressure Range (mmHg)
Low Blood Pressure	80-89	60-80
Normal Blood Pressure	90-119	Below 80
Pre-Hypertension (Grey Area)	120-139	80-89
Stage-I Hypertension	140-159	90-99
Stage-II Hypertension	160-179	100-109
Stage-III Hypertension	180 or higher	110 or higher