Hypertension – Diagnosis

Transcript

Being diagnosed with high blood pressure is based upon two numbers that complies blood pressure. The first number, called the systolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart beats. If your systolic blood pressure is consistently 130 or above, you may be considered to have high blood pressure. This systolic pressure is the top number you’ll see when you check your blood pressure at home or even at your healthcare provider’s office. The second or bottom number is the diastolic number, which measures the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart rests in between beats. If the diastolic pressure is consistently 80 or above, you are considered to have high blood pressure. When you test yourself for a few days and you notice that your blood pressure is over 120 systolic or over 80 diastolic, it means that you should seek medical advice from a physician. Remember to check your blood pressure at different times of the day, to make sure you get a sense of your overall blood pressure. If you’ve never checked your blood pressure before, you can relax, because checking your blood pressure with the stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff is painless. There are no known complications of having your blood pressure checked, so you can do it as often as you like.