What Is A High BP & What Does It Do To You?

Hey guys/gals. In the first post I talked about my background with high blood pressure. In the second blog post I talked about how I escaped the nightmare that I was living with the medications, and how I got lucky because a friend turned me on to a natural cure from high BP.  In this post, I just want to explain my basic understanding of an elevated blood pressure, and what that does to your body. Bear in mind that I'm not a doctor, and that this is just my opinion, based off of my experiences and readings.

Healthy people typically have a blood pressure reading of less than 120 over 80. If you have prehypertension, your reading will be around 120/139 over 80/89. You are categorized as having hypertension stage 1 with a BP reading of 140/159 over 90/99. You're stage 2 with anything above 160 over 100. You should probably be admitted into the hospital I your BP is greater than 180 over 110. When I was first diagnosed with an elevated blood pressure, my first reading was 200 over 130!

Now we know what you readings should (and should not) be, but exactly what are blood pressure readings measuring? Good question! The first number is called the "systolic". That number measures the pressure that is built up in your arteries every time that your heart beats. The second number (which is also the lowest one) is called the "diastolic". It's a measurement of the pressure that is in your arteries when your heart is at rest (between the beats).

Now we know what reading you should have, what the readings are measuring, but what causes a high BP reading and what does that mean for you? Good questions! Here is how I make sense of it:

Blood is traveling to and from your heart through these little tunnels that are called arteries. When the arteries are nice and clean, there is plenty of room for the little blood cells to travel through the tubes.
If something partially blocks the path of the blood cells, or the tubes become smaller, that creates a traffic jam. Think of this traffic jam like one that occurs on the highway. There is a wreck. The road goes from 4 lanes to just 2. What happens? Cars back up! Instead of traffic flowing smoothly, it becomes a mess! When your arteries aren't nice and smooth (a wreck), the blood cells have a harder time traveling down them. Your heart compensates for the difficulty by working harder. You still need the blood to flow, so your heart is "freaking out" to keep it going. This increase in work by the heart creates a higher pressure that is now needed to get your blood moving.

Last, but not least, what does this high blood pressure readings mean for you? We'll go over this question in detail in the next blog post, but let's just say that it's not good. If your heart is having to work so hard to supply the oxygenated blood to your body, it can eventually stop working right.

We'll pick up from this spot in the next journey post.