The medical term blood pressure is used over and over again without most people knowing exactly what processes are behind it. Below, you can learn more about healthy blood pressure and diseases that can result from elevated or low blood pressure.
What is blood pressure?
Blood circulates within the blood vessels in the body and undergoes various processes. A very significant factor, which can be observed in this context, is blood pressure. Blood pressure is a parameter that results from a force (pressure) with which the blood flows through the vessels and the organs. This force presents itself as the physical quantity pressure and can be measured with appropriate medical instruments. In the case of blood pressure, a distinction is made between the systolic and diastolic values depending on the physiological processes. Less familiar are the mean blood pressure and the so-called pulse pressure. All factors are subject to specific age-dependent normal ranges.
Examine and measure blood pressure (normal value and healthy blood pressure).
Normal values for blood pressure in adults are around 120 mmHg systolic and around the 80 mmHg diastolic blood pressure. Excessive or abnormal blood pressure can be assumed when measurements reveal values greater than 140/90 mmHg. This excess is referred to as hypertension or high blood pressure. If the measurement result is less than 100/60 mmHg, hypotension or excessively low blood pressure is present. In people who have reached an advanced age, a blood pressure around 140/90 mmHg is considered normal. In children, acceptable blood pressure usually ranges slightly below 100/60 mmHg or around 110/70 mmHg. In addition, blood pressure is subject to natural fluctuations. The majority of patients know about the measurement of blood pressure with a stethoscope inl. sphygmomanometer from their own experience. When determining blood pressure, physicians still distinguish between a direct, a palpatory and an indirect method. The most common method is to measure blood pressure on the basis of the sounds made by the blood as it travels through the vessels, which can be heard through a stethoscope. This principle detects systolic blood pressure, where the blood flows freely because the pressure through the cuff is released, and diastolic blood pressure. The latter builds up when the blood flow in the vessel is interrupted by a pressure cuff. Blood pressure is always measured on an artery because it leads away from the heart. In addition to the upper arm artery near the heart, a leg artery may also be sought. In addition, there are physical limitations to blood pressure measurement.
Function, effect, and tasks
Blood pressure is the basis for blood to be pressed into even the smallest capillary vessels and also to reach the brain when a person walks upright. For this reason the arteries, which carry the blood pressed out by the heart, are subject to a so-called arterial pressure. This is not maintained arbitrarily and independently of the entire organ system, but is specifically regulated. Under these conditions, arterial blood pressure responds to physical stress or additional strain and can decrease again during periods of rest. The regulation of blood pressure is based on a complicated mechanism, which is influenced by a variety of hormonal, enzymatic, nervous, and vascular anatomic components.
Diseases
In the context of pathologic (pathological) abnormalities to be studied in blood pressure, there are arterial hypertension and peripheral venous hypertension, as well as hypotension and portal hypertension. In cardiology and general medicine, a distinction is also made between pathological conditions of blood pressure such as pulmonary hypertension and excessive venous blood pressure in the large central veins. These diseases are rather not so common. It is more or less the secondary effects on other organs and the entire cardiovascular system that worry people in connection with blood pressure. Experienced doctors and physicians do not see too low blood pressure as a particular risk factor, but rather too high blood pressure. Hypertension usually progresses through several stages and also has varying diagnoses.If left untreated, permanently high blood pressure leads to a loss of heart function (heart failure) and other massive consequential damage for those affected.
Typical and common conditions
- Hypertension
- Low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Blood pressure fluctuations
- High blood pressure during pregnancy (preeclampsia).
- Heart attack
- Arterial hypertension
