Normal Adult Blood Pressure

The heart in the human body acts as a pump and keeps pumping the blood through blood vessels. The blood moving through the blood vessels, exerts pressure on the inner walls, which is referred to as the blood pressure. A adult person may have normal adult blood pressure, high or low blood pressure.

Normal Adult Blood Pressure

When you are not feeling well and visit a doctor to sort out the problem, one of the things a doctor does is that he uses a device called sphygmomanometer to measure your blood pressure. The doctor rolls the fabric cuff of the sphygmomanometer round your arm and using the rubber bulb of the device, pumps the air in the cuff. This action stops the flow of blood in the vessels of your arm, encased with the cuff. Then the doctor releases the air inside the cuff to restore the flow of blood, resulting pressure in the blood vessels of your arm. The blood pressure is expressed using two values, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. What is known as normal adult blood pressure is denoted by a value 120/80 and read as 120 over 80. The number preceding the '/' denotes systolic pressure and the one succeeding the '/', denotes diastolic pressure. The systolic pressure and the diastolic pressure tells us about the pressure in the blood vessels, whilst the heart is contracting and resting, respectively. The doctor, after releasing the air from the cuff of the sphygmomanometer listens, using a stethoscope, for the contraction and the relaxation of your heart and reads both your systolic and diastolic pressures. A calibrated glass tube, which is a part of the sphygmomanometer, contains mercury, whose level in tube reflects the blood pressure at that instant. For more information on blood pressure measurement, read the article, 'Blood Pressure Readings Scale'.

Blood Pressure

The blood pressure keeps on changing from minute to minute. The factors like your life style, exercises, the posture, consumption and the emotional stress you are experiencing may affect it. So, if you are interested to know about your normal adult blood pressure, take more than one reading at different times of the day and average them out to calculate an average blood pressure. Heredity is also an important factor to be considered, while arriving at the your normal blood pressure. If your family has the history of high blood pressure, then your blood pressure may be higher than what is considered normal. Same is true for the families with the history of low blood pressure. Considering all these factors, if you have blood pressure is in the range of 90/60 and 120/80, it is considered as the normal adult blood pressure. If your average normal blood pressure is between 120/80 and 139/89, it is an indication of pre-hypertension. If it is more than 140/90, then it is a sign of stage 1 hypertension and an average more than 160/100 indicates stage 2 hypertension. On the other hand, if your average blood pressure reading is below 90/60, then it is a sign of hypotension.

If you are health conscious and exercise regularly to stay fit, then you may find your average blood pressure level is lower than the normal adult blood pressure. Don't worry, it is not a sign of disease, rather it signifies that you have a very efficient heart. Even a half an hour of brisk walking, is enough to condition your heart and enable it to pump the blood at normal adult blood pressure. For more information on how to lower high blood pressure, read the article How to Lower High Blood Pressure.