Blood Pressure - What is it?

Blood Pressure - What is it?

You may have heard the word ‘hypertension’ thrown around. Simply put, hypertension means high blood pressure, a condition that people of all ages, sex and ethnicities can develop. But do you know what it means or why it is important?

Blood pressure is the measurement of force your blood puts on blood vessel walls as it travels through the body. A healthy blood pressure is 120/80.

Why two numbers?

1st – Systolic blood pressure is the force your blood puts on blood vessel walls as your heart beats.

2nd – Diastolic blood pressure is the force your blood puts on blood vessel walls when your heart is at rest between beats. When your heart beats, it squeezes and pushes blood through your arteries to the rest of your body. This force creates pressure on those blood vessels, and that is your systolic blood pressure.

When systolic blood pressure is high, the heart must work harder than normal to push blood from its chambers into the arteries. A normal systolic pressure is below 120.

The diastolic reading, or the bottom number, is the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats. This is the time when the heart fills with blood and gets oxygen.

A normal diastolic blood pressure is lower than 80. But even if your diastolic number is lower than 80, you can still have elevated blood pressure if the systolic reading is 120-129

Hypertension or high blood pressure makes the heart work harder and can lead to increased risk factors for heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, memory loss, eye disease, and can also decrease blood flow to vital organs. Taking Omega CoQ10 daily will protect your heart and provide energy to your cells.

High blood pressure is often called the ’silent killer’ as there are often no signs or symptoms present so it is hard to detect! Generally, our blood pressure increases as we get older, and it is more prominent in men than women.

The good news is that it is preventable and doesn’t take a major life overhaul to improve your blood pressure. Small steps add up to big changes. Tips to reduce your blood pressure:

• Don’t add salt to food, use Lite Iodised Salt

• Take Omega CoQ10 daily

• Reduce takeaways

• Read labels and choose low salt options where possible

• Introduce exercise

• Limit alcohol and caffeine

• Reduce stress

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