Your Heart and Blood Pressure - A Quick Guide
Every cell in your body needs oxygen and nutrients to stay alive.
The blood in your body carries oxygen and nutrients to each cell through blood vessels and flows round the body.
The job of your heart is to continually pump the blood and cause it to flow round the body.
At every heart beat blood is squeezed into arteries to reach all parts of the body and is returned to the heart through veins.
One of the cells in your blood can do a complete circuit of the body in about 45 seconds.
Your arteries have elastic walls which expand slightly each time there is a pulse of blood from the heart.
It takes a great deal of force to pump blood around every part of your body but arteries are designed to cope with the stress.
However, if you have hypertension this puts a lot more strain on your arteries and causes their smooth lining to become rough and the artery walls to thicken.
The prolonged effects of hypertension causes the arteries to get narrower and become less elastic.
This condition is called 'hardening of the arteries' or arteriosclerosis.
Hypertension is the term used to describe the condition where blood pressure is too high.
Blood pressure in your body is kept within limits by the brain and kidneys.
The brain can receive information about pressure levels along nerves which are sensitive to pressure in the arteries.
To keep your blood pressure at a steady level, the brain causes small blood vessels called arterioles to contract or expand which adjusts the pressure in the arteries.
The kidneys also help to control your blood pressure by producing a hormone called renin.
Renin indirectly raises blood pressure by triggering the release of another hormone called angiotensin.
This hormone narrows the arterioles and plays a part in increasing the volume of blood in circulation both of these actions will raise your blood pressure.
Blood pressure in your body varies with the time of day, mood or activity.
To a large extent, the pressure in your arteries is affected by how hard your heart is working and the health of your blood vessels.
Normal blood pressure (bp) is not a fixed value throughout life but tends to rise slightly with age.
When deciding what is high blood pressure for any individual account is taken of age and lifestyle.
An adult bp reading should ideally remain below 140/85.
Should your bp be regularly measured above 140/85 and especially if it reaches 160/90, then you are in need of medical treatment.
There are no symptoms felt by someone with hypertension so regular checks to monitor blood pressure are the only way of knowing.
The first step to controlling hypertension is knowing that you have it so it pays to have regular physical check-ups
The blood in your body carries oxygen and nutrients to each cell through blood vessels and flows round the body.
The job of your heart is to continually pump the blood and cause it to flow round the body.
At every heart beat blood is squeezed into arteries to reach all parts of the body and is returned to the heart through veins.
One of the cells in your blood can do a complete circuit of the body in about 45 seconds.
Your arteries have elastic walls which expand slightly each time there is a pulse of blood from the heart.
It takes a great deal of force to pump blood around every part of your body but arteries are designed to cope with the stress.
However, if you have hypertension this puts a lot more strain on your arteries and causes their smooth lining to become rough and the artery walls to thicken.
The prolonged effects of hypertension causes the arteries to get narrower and become less elastic.
This condition is called 'hardening of the arteries' or arteriosclerosis.
Hypertension is the term used to describe the condition where blood pressure is too high.
Blood pressure in your body is kept within limits by the brain and kidneys.
The brain can receive information about pressure levels along nerves which are sensitive to pressure in the arteries.
To keep your blood pressure at a steady level, the brain causes small blood vessels called arterioles to contract or expand which adjusts the pressure in the arteries.
The kidneys also help to control your blood pressure by producing a hormone called renin.
Renin indirectly raises blood pressure by triggering the release of another hormone called angiotensin.
This hormone narrows the arterioles and plays a part in increasing the volume of blood in circulation both of these actions will raise your blood pressure.
Blood pressure in your body varies with the time of day, mood or activity.
To a large extent, the pressure in your arteries is affected by how hard your heart is working and the health of your blood vessels.
Normal blood pressure (bp) is not a fixed value throughout life but tends to rise slightly with age.
When deciding what is high blood pressure for any individual account is taken of age and lifestyle.
An adult bp reading should ideally remain below 140/85.
Should your bp be regularly measured above 140/85 and especially if it reaches 160/90, then you are in need of medical treatment.
There are no symptoms felt by someone with hypertension so regular checks to monitor blood pressure are the only way of knowing.
The first step to controlling hypertension is knowing that you have it so it pays to have regular physical check-ups
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