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Exactly What Is Meant By Normal Arterial Blood Pressure?

The body's blood pressure is always changing and it is extremely rare for an individual to have 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 walking the dog, talking, eating, walking, sleeping, mowing the lawn and almost anything else you can imagine will affect your blood pressure.

While fluctuations in our blood pressure are simply a fact of life it can of course create difficulties for doctors who need to make use of blood pressure to monitor your general health. The challenge is thus to try to establish a level of blood pressure that we can consider to be a normal average and then to establish limits below and above this figure that can also be considered as representing the normal range of blood pressure variation. A good starting point is to examine the pressure in the arteries of the body when the heart pumps blood throughout the body.

blood carries oxygen and a mixture of nutrients to all parts of the body along a series of blood vessels starting with the main aorta carrying blood from the heart and ending in a mass of tiny capillaries.

The first thing that has to be considered therefore is just how high a pressure is required in the aorta when the blood leaves the heart if it is to reach its destination in distant parts of the body.

Next, the second thing that has to be considered is how high a pressure is required in the capillaries to transfer oxygen and nutrients into the tissues of the body.

Careful research over several years shows that the optimum arterial pressure to deliver blood to all areas of the body and to facilitate the transfer of oxygen and nutrients 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 known as the systolic pressure.

As with most things in life though a pressure slightly below or above this level is not going to make a lot of difference and the body will still function normally. However, when the blood pressure climbs too high or drops too low then you will start to run into difficulty.

So exactly what are the lower and upper limits within which the average person should be able to continue to operate normally?

Here things become a little bit blurred and the answer varies from one individual to the next. However as a general rule the upper limit for blood pressure in most individuals is about 140 mg Hg and the lower limit is about 90 mg Hg.

Possibly the most important starting point however is to establish the level that is right for you and that takes into account such things as your age and general health together with your lifestyle. Having agreed this figure with your physician it is then merely a matter of monitoring you blood pressure.

Article Source: http://blisspublisher.com

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides advice on all aspects of blood pressure from the cause of high blood pressure to selecting an Omron blood pressure monitor

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