Britons are being urged to take control of their health during Blood Pressure UK’s Know Your Numbers! Week, running from September 7-13. The crucial campaign aims to find some of the five million people feared to be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure, increasing their risk of deadly conditions, including heart attacks and strokes.
But knowing your numbers is not enough — you also need to know what they mean. Blood Pressure UK’s chair, Dr Pauline Swift, shared a guide to taking blood pressure readings at home earlier this week. Today, she explains how to interpret your readings.
Dr Swift said: “A blood pressure reading contains two numbers. The top number, or systolic pressure, measures the pressure when your heart beats and pumps blood around your body.
“The bottom number, or diastolic pressure, measures the pressure when your heart relaxes between beats. A reading of 120/80mmHg, for example, is said as ‘120 over 80’.”
As a general guide, for home blood pressure monitoring, Blood Pressure UK describes:
- 90/60 to 120/80mmHg: ideal blood pressure.
- 120/80 to 135/85 mmHg: higher than ideal and sometimes described as high-normal or “pre-high” blood pressure.
- 135/85 mmHg or above: may indicate high blood pressure and should be followed up.
Dr Swift added: “Blood pressure readings taking in a clinic tend to be a little higher than home readings — NICE uses an average clinic blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or above as the threshold for confirming hypertension alongside your home readings or 24h ambulatory blood pressure readings.”
Readings can be affected by factors such as stress, temperature, activity and what you have recently eaten or drunk, so one worrying reading is not necessarily a reason to panic.
When you first start monitoring at home, Blood Pressure UK advises taking readings in the morning and evening for a week. NICE similarly recommends twice-daily home measurements, ideally over seven days, when home monitoring is being used to help confirm hypertension.
A survey of 2,000 adults for Blood Pressure UK found that almost half of the people who had had a check could not remember their last result, and 15% wrongly thought checks were not relevant before the age of 40.
Dr Swift added: “High blood pressure usually has no obvious symptoms which is why it’s often known as ‘the silent killer’. You can feel perfectly well while raised blood pressure is quietly damaging your blood vessels and organs, increasing your risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney disease and vascular dementia.
“Blood pressure checks are not something to start thinking about only when you reach middle age. Adults in their 20s and 30s need to know their numbers, too.
“The good news is that checking your blood pressure at home is quick and straightforward. It can also give a useful picture of what your blood pressure is like during normal daily life, away from the anxiety some people experience in a clinic.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
