Healthy Heart Tip: Know Your Numbers

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Do you know your numbers? Around one in three people in the UK have high blood pressure, and around six million people are unaware that they have it. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, often doesn’t have any symptoms meaning that you wouldn’t know you had it unless you got it checked or checked it yourself.

Several different factors affect your blood pressure, including physical activity, diet and genetics. By following a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle your blood pressure readings can change. Everyone should aim for their blood pressure to be within a healthy range throughout the day and especially at resting.

Here we give more information on blood pressure and the risks of hypertension.

What is blood pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure of blood on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood around your body.

Systolic blood pressure is the first (or top) reading that you get on your BP monitor and the higher number of the two. This is the maximum reading recorded when your heart contracts.

Diastolic blood pressure is the second (or bottom) reading that’s on your monitor. This is the minimum recorded reading when your heart relaxes prior to the next contraction.

Blood pressure readings

Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mm/Hg) and is written in a form of systolic / diastolic.

A healthy blood pressure range is 90 / 60 mmHg to 120 / 80 mmHg. A reading below the healthy range is classed as having low blood pressure, and a reading of 121-140 / 81-90 mm/Hg is within a raised range.

If your blood pressure is above this then you have high blood pressure and need to visit your GP. High readings range from 141-160 / 91-100 mm/Hg with very high readings being anything above 160 / above 100 mm/Hg.

Risks of hypertension

Having high blood pressure (hypertension) increases your risk of having a stroke or heart attack. Uncontrolled high blood pressure damages the walls of your blood vessels, which results in plaque build up and can lead to coronary heart disease and strokes. It also damages the heart muscle due to it needing to work over-time, which can lead to heart failure.

Reducing your blood pressure

Physical activity and exercise are one of the best ways to strengthen your heart and reduce your blood pressure. Aim to carry out at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week.

Dietary factors such as consuming high amounts of salt and sugar also increase your blood pressure and can influence weight gain. An easy way to reduce your blood pressure readings is by reducing your consumption of these and opting for low salt and sugar versions of foods, making sure you’re reading the food labels on packaging.

Consuming too much alcohol and smoking can increase your blood pressure too, so reducing these and stopping where possible will help your heart massively.

Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.

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