Exactly What Is Normal Arterial Blood Pressure? - By: Don Saunders

Our blood pressure is always changing and it is extremely rare for a person to have a blood pressure reading 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 standing up, drinking, talking, sleeping, sitting, walking the dog and just about anything else you care to mention can alter your blood pressure reading.

While the fact that your blood pressure is always varying is simply a fact of life it can of course create problems for your doctor who needs to use blood pressure to monitor your general health. The challenge is thus to try to establish a blood pressure level that can be considered as a normal average and then define limits above and below this value that can also be considered as representing the normal range of blood pressure fluctuation. A good point at which to start is to look at the pressure in the arteries of the body when the heart pumps blood around the body.

Our blood moves oxygen and a mixture of nutrients to every part of the body through a series of blood vessels beginning with the main aorta taking blood from the heart and ending in a mass of extremely small capillaries.

The first consideration therefore is exactly how high a pressure is needed in the aorta when the blood leaves the heart if it is going to reach its destination in far flung areas of the body.

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

Careful study over several years has shown that the optimum arterial pressure to deliver blood throughout the body and to facilitate the transfer of nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body is 120 mm Hg. This figure represents the average blood pressure when the heart is pumping blood around the body and is normally referred to as the systolic pressure.

like most things in life however a pressure slightly below or above this level will not make a great deal of difference and your body will still work quite normally. But, if your blood pressure climbs too high or falls too low then you will start to run into difficulty.

So just what are the upper and lower limits within which the average person should be able to continue operating normally?

Here the edges become a bit blurred and the answer varies from one individual to the next. Nonetheless as a general rule the upper limit for blood pressure in most individuals is in the region of 140 mg Hg and the lower limit is in the region of 90 mg Hg.

Possibly the most important starting point however is to establish the level that is right for you and that takes into account such things as your age and general health as well as your lifestyle. Having agreed this figure with your physician it is then simply a matter of keeping an eye on you blood pressure.

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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

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