Blood Pressure

What Is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is the force that circulating blood exerts against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps it throughout your body. It is a vital sign, usually measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and recorded with two numbers:

• Systolic pressure: The top number, representing the pressure when your heart beats.

• Diastolic pressure: The bottom number, representing the pressure when your heart rests between beats.

A typical normal adult reading is around 120/80 mmHg. Blood pressure can fluctuate naturally based on activity, stress, position, and even certain medications.

Why Does Blood Pressure Happen (and Change)?

Blood pressure exists because your heart needs to push blood with enough force to deliver oxygen and nutrients to all the organs and tissues of the body. Several factors influence your blood pressure:

• Heart function: How strongly and efficiently your heart pumps blood.

• Artery health: If arteries are narrowed or stiff, more force is needed to move blood through them.

• Blood volume and composition: The amount of circulating fluid, salt, and water in your body.

• Hormonal and nervous system activity: Hormones and nerves can constrict or relax your arteries, affecting pressure.

• Lifestyle and genetics: Factors like high-salt diet, obesity, lack of exercise, stress, excess alcohol, and family history all play a role.

If the pressure is consistently too high (hypertension), the heart and arteries experience extra strain, leading to health risks like heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, and more. Hypertension often develops gradually due to age, diet, genetics, or other underlying medical conditions.

How Proper Medicines Can Cure Blood Pressure Issues

Medicines for blood pressure (antihypertensives) work by targeting the underlying mechanisms that control blood pressure—each type acts in unique ways:

• Diuretics help your body remove excess salt and water, lowering blood volume and pressure.

• ACE inhibitors and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) relax blood vessels by interfering with hormones that constrict arteries, making it easier for blood to flow.

• Calcium channel blockers relax the muscles of blood vessel walls and can slow heart rate.

• Beta blockers reduce the heart’s workload and slow heart rate, lowering pressure.

• Alpha blockers/alpha-beta blockers relax blood vessels and may slow the heart, further improving blood flow.

• Vasodilators and central-acting agents work by relaxing blood vessels either directly or via the central nervous system.

The right medicine, or combination, is chosen based on individual patient health, co-existing conditions, and specific blood pressure goals. When taken as prescribed, these medicines can control blood pressure, lower the risk of dangerous complications, and allow people to live healthier, longer lives.