Do you know what the normal blood pressure values are? Although they vary with age, it is essential to discover what levels are considered healthy.
As we know, blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of the arteries and veins created by the heart when it pumps blood. It is fundamental, necessary and essential to provide both nutrients and oxygen to the different organs and tissues of our body. Thus, having a normal pressure means that we generally enjoy good cardiovascular health, essential when it comes to caring for and protecting the health of the kidneys and the heart.
This blood circulates through blood vessels distributed throughout the body, especially veins and arteries. It is this blood that exerts pressure on the different vascular walls, and this pressure is mainly determined by the elasticity of the blood vessels and by the force at which our heart pumps.
Thus, for example, depending on our activities, it is normal for blood pressure to rise or fall, depending on our diet, our daily activity, and our diet and, above all, the lifestyle we follow every day.
What is blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the pressure that blood exerts against the wall of the arteries. It is, as you might imagine, an essential pressure for the blood to circulate through all the blood vessels, providing both the oxygen and the different nutrients that our organs and tissues need. We distinguish two fundamental components, as we will see below:
- Systolic blood pressure: it is the maximum value of blood pressure when the heart contracts, and refers to the pressure effect that blood exerts when it is ejected from the heart to the wall of the blood vessels.
- Diastolic blood pressure: it is the minimum value of blood pressure when the heart is between heartbeats or in diastole. It refers to the pressure effect that blood exerts on the vessel wall.
How is blood pressure expressed?
Blood pressure is expressed in two numbers. The first is called the systolic (“maximum”) pressure and the second the diastolic (“minimum”) pressure. The first is blood pressure when the heart is pumping blood; however, the second is the pressure when our heart rests between beats.
It is usually measured in mmHg, in such a way that the systolic value is recorded first and then the diastolic value. Let’s take an example: our blood pressure is 110/80 mmHg. This means that the systolic pressure is 110 mmHg and the diastolic blood pressure is 80 mmHg.
When blood pressure is considered “high”, both data are taken into account. Therefore, always having at hand what the blood pressure classification would be depending on the minimum or high levels is always essential to try to discover precisely that: if your levels are high or low.
Taking these figures into account above all, we can find optimal blood pressure, normal, high-normal, light, moderate or severe blood pressure in more extreme cases in which blood pressure is 180/110.
Main differences between blood pressure and tension
It is common for both elements to be used in such a way that they appear to be synonyms. However, in reality, blood pressure and blood pressure is not exactly the same thing. In fact, while as we indicated above, blood pressure consists of the pressure exerted by the blood against the wall of our arteries, blood pressure is the pressure that the different blood vessels exert on the circulating blood.
As many doctors state, although in a certain sense it is common to use both terms as synonyms, the most appropriate would be to use blood pressure, since in fact its measurement is effectively described in pressure units.
What are the blood pressure values:
Based on the figures, blood pressure is classified into:
- Optimal blood pressure if the number is less than 120/80.
- Normal blood pressure if it is less than 130/85.
- Normal-high blood pressure if it ranges between 130-139/85-89.
- Slight blood pressure if it ranges between 140-159/90-99.
- Moderate blood pressure if it is between 160-179/100-109.
- Serious blood pressure if it is greater than 180/110.
In this way, we can find ourselves with mild hypertension, which is one whose systolic blood pressure is between 140-159 mmHg and/or diastolic pressure between 90-99 mmHg; medium-severe hypertension when systolic pressure is 160-179 mmHg and/or diastolic pressure 100-109 mmHg; and severe hypertension when the systolic pressure is 180 mmHg or higher and the diastolic pressure is 110 mmHg or higher.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines hypotension as low blood pressure when it falls below 100/70 mmHg. Or, what is the same, we summarize below all the blood pressure values:
How is the normal pressure:
If you are concerned about your tension or blood pressure, you should know that there are actually values considered normal blood pressure. Therefore, we can indicate below what these normal blood pressure values are:
- Normal values of systolic pressure: it should be between 120-129 mmHg.
- Normal values of diastolic pressure: it should be between 80-84 mmHg.
However, did you know that normal blood pressure values vary depending on age? This means that these values considered normal tend to differ depending on the person’s age:
