You may have heard your doctor use the terms high and low pressure and not have known what in the world he meant. You may also have been wondering how it could possibly apply to you.
You know you have a heart and you know that it pumps liquid through the body, but you just do not understand much more past that. The heart is an intricate organ vital to keeping you alive, so it is time you learn more about it!
Just as the freeway has a minimum and maximum speed limit, the pumping of the heart also has a minimum and maximum pressure. This force is measured in many different ways, but one of the most common is by newtons per square meter, which are also called pascals.
The minimum pressure is called diastolic, whereas the maximum is considered systolic. You may recognize the rate of pressure as being measured with 2 numbers separated by a slash, such as 120/80.
These two numbers are the diastolic and systolic blood pressures. Obviously, the bigger number is the systolic and the smaller number is the diastolic reading.
Systolic and diastolic pressures are some things you may not fully understand. In order to fix this, you should first learn about the heart's process for pumping blood.
The lower chambers of the heart contract, or squeeze tighter together, in order to pump from the heart to the rest of the body. This contracting increases the blood pressure.
To illustrate this point further, consider a bottle of liquid of some kind. It may be lotion; it may be shampoo; it may even be a tube of toothpaste; the point is that there is liquid contained in a squeezable bottle.
Now imagine yourself tipping the bottle of shampoo upside down. If you are like most people, you probably squeeze the bottle to increase the flow of shampoo into your palm before beginning to wash your hair.
This squeezing increases the pressure of the liquid, forcing it out of the bottle. Comparing this to the pumping of a heart, you will understand how the valves contracting are like squeezing a bottle of liquid and therefore, increases the pressure.
Referring back to systolic and diastolic pressures. You just learned that systolic is the maximum and is created by the arteries contracting in order to pump throughout the body.
Once the arteries relax again after being contracted, this creates the diastolic pressure. You might compare this to the relaxed state of a shampoo bottle.
The liquid is still free to flow through, but the pressure is not as high because you are no longer squeezing the bottle. This lack of maximum pressure compares to the minimum pressure of the diastolic pressure.
Now you may have heard of people with high pressure and those with a low pressure. You may also be wondering how these two characteristics affect someone.
Is it really harmful to have high or low pressure? What does this do to the body?
High blood pressure increases the likelihood of suffering from cardiovascular problems. Cardiovascular diseases are those diseases related to the heart and its malfunctions, mainly relating to the arteries or veins.
As the pressure rises, it pushes harder on the artery walls and creates a higher likelihood to suffer from cardiovascular disease. That would be a downfall to having high blood pressure: it is dangerous and critical in determining the health of the heart and its connected veins and arteries.
The pressure in liquids varies by height. This is one reason why doctors can measure blood pressure in your arm: because it is about the same height as your heart.
This variance in pressure due to the height, affects people with low blood pressure. If someone has low pressure, he or she may not have enough pressure to pump enough blood up to the brain, causing fainting to occur.
Now that you have learned a little about heart pressure, you will be able to understand if your doctor tells you that you have high or low blood pressure. Remember the heart is a vital organ, so take care of it and it will take care of you!
Author Resource:-
Jack R. Landry has worked as a nurse practitioner for the last 16 years. He has worked in local clinics and the ER and recommends looking into high blood pressure cure to avoid a fatal heart attack.
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