Just What Do We Mean When Talking About Normal Arterial Blood Pressure?

The body's blood pressure is constantly changing and it is extremely rare to find a person with a blood pressure level which is constant. Almost everything we do will have an affect on our blood pressure which will move up and down as we go about our normal day to day business. Simple things such as walking the dog, standing up, walking, talking, sleeping, sitting, mowing the lawn and almost anything else you can imagine can alter your blood pressure.

While the fact that our blood pressure is continually varying is simply a fact of life it can however create problems for your doctor who needs to make use of blood pressure as a monitor of your general health. The challenge is therefore to try to define a level of blood pressure that can be considered as a normal average and then to define limits below and above this figure that will represent the normal range of blood pressure variation. The starting for doing this is to look at the pressure in the body's arteries as the heart pumps blood to the various organs of the body.

Our blood transports a mixture of nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body along a series of blood vessels starting with the main aorta carrying blood from the heart and ending in a multitude of tiny capillaries. The first consideration therefore is precisely how much pressure is needed in the aorta as the blood leaves the heart if it is going to reach its destination in distant parts of the body.

Next, the second consideration is how much pressure is needed in the capillaries to transfer nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body.

Careful research over many years has shown that the optimum arterial pressure to deliver blood to all parts of the body and to enable the movement of nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body is 120 mm Hg. This figure represents the normal arterial pressure when the heart is pumping blood around the body and is usually known as your systolic pressure.

like many things in life though a pressure slightly below or above this level will not make a great deal of difference and the body will continue to work quite normally. However, when the blood pressure climbs too high or drops too far then you are going to start to run into difficulty. So just what are the lower and upper limits within which the average individual should be able to continue operating normally?

Here the edges become a little bit fuzzy and the answer varies from person to person. However in general the upper limit for blood pressure in most individuals is approximately 140 mg Hg and the lower limit is approximately 90 mg Hg.

Perhaps the most important starting point however is to establish the level that is right for you and that takes into account things like your age and general health together with your lifestyle. Once you have agreed this figure with your doctor it is then simply a matter of keeping an eye on you blood pressure.

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides advice on all aspects of blood pressure from the cause of high blood pressure to selecting the best home blood pressure monitor.