Understanding your blood pressure numbers

If you’ve ever had appointments with your doctor where your blood pressure was measured, you may have noticed something consistent, each time. The doctor checks your blood pressure using a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer and they note down two numbers on their note pad, in a typical doctor scribble.

Here’s another scenario. You’re at home and you’ve decided to run a personal blood pressure check, in the spirit of regular self-monitoring. You then see two numbers again, on the screen, both quite unclear to you, but you got your BP monitor from Triosed Medical – www.triosedmedical.com.ng and it has indicators that explain the readings in an easily understandable way. So, you quietly disregard these two numbers. “Phew. Thank you, Triosed!”.

Well, the purpose of this article is to simply satisfy your long borne curiosity about the two numbers. Let’s get into it!

The physiology behind the readings

So, when your heart beats, it undergoes a cycle where it contracts and relaxes periodically. When your heart contracts, it squeezes blood into your arteries which carries the blood to your other body tissues. When that happens, the blood in the arteries pushes up on the walls of the arteries and the force it exerts is known as Systolic Blood Pressure (your blood pressure when your heart contracts). And in between contractions, when your heart rests, the pressure exerted against the walls of your arteries reduces and this force is known as the Diastolic Blood Pressure (your blood pressure when your heart relaxes).

These two readings make up the complete blood pressure reading. The systolic pressure reading is conventionally written above the diastolic pressure reading.

Diagnosing high blood pressure

Now that we know all this, if I’m to take a wild guess, you’re probably asking what you’re supposed to make of those two numbers. To answer that, we need to know what a normal blood pressure level looks like. The medically accepted normal blood pressure level stands at: a systolic pressure of 120 mmHg and a diastolic pressure of 80 mmHg. Written or displayed as “120/80 mmHg”. So, using that as a yardstick, you can easily tell if your BP level is abnormally high or low.

See how doctors diagnose abnormally high blood pressure levels here – www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/about.htm

Hope you found this helpful. Triosed Nigeria is a leading medical equipment supplier in Nigeria. We supply electronic, user-friendly and portable automatic blood pressure monitors that have indicators which help you understand your readings, with memory space that can store up to 30 readings.

For every one you buy this month of August, you’ll be given a free WT-03 Base thermometer. Get yours now!

Shop now at: www.triosedmedical.com.ng/store/

Call us: 08028258330, 08037688569.