Defining High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

The greatest problem with high blood pressure these days is that it is so widespread and so often talked about that most people do not appear to treat it with the respect that it deserves. The simple fact is high blood pressure, or hypertension, is a killer and ought to be treated as such.

Many hundreds of researchers and doctors have spent a great deal of money and time trying to describe exactly what the true definition of hypertension is.

There have been countless human population studies performed on this topic that have given the doctors, scientist and researchers a wide range of blood pressure values. However the results are usually skewed and vary from country to country and even from one district to the next within a particular country. Thus, it has been agreed that the true definition of high blood pressure can only be found through constant observation and experimentation.

Normal blood pressure is seen today in a similar way to normal body weight in that the level used for its definition is that which is seen as providing the greatest predicted life expectancy. In other words, this is the pressure at which the heart and other important parts of the body like the circulatory system are able to continue under optimum conditions without running the risk of heart disease and other associated disorders.

Naturally there are a number of other considerations to be taken into account when defining hypertension and some have to be excluded. For instance, If a healthy individual becomes then their systolic (or pumping) blood pressure can be expected to rise by perhaps as much as fifty percent as their blood flow rises in response to extreme emotional excitement or any form of energetic activity. But it will not stay high for long and once the level of excitement subsides your blood pressure also returns to its normal level.

As well as a systolic blood pressure you also have a diastolic (resting) blood pressure which is the more important and is a very good guide in ascertaining whether or not a high reading is a false positive. The reason why the diastolic pressure is important is because it points to the state of a person's arteries and if you have a high reading it may show that the arteries are narrowed and not allowing a free flow of blood as they should be.

It is very important to realize that high blood pressure is not in itself a disease but is a key criterion used by doctors to diagnose or predict other illnesses.

Finally, it is also necessary to understand that hypertension cannot be cured although it can be controlled very effectively.

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on many different aspects of blood pressure including what causes high blood pressure and sourcing the best home blood pressure monitors