Ideal Blood Pressure Numbers Explained

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❝Maybe I missed it but the study on blood pressure did it say what the 2 numbers should read ideally?❞

We linked it at the top of the article rather than including it inline, as we were short on space (and there was a chart rather than a “these two numbers” quick answer), but we have a little more space today, so:

CategorySystolic (mm Hg)Diastolic (mm Hg)
Normal< 120AND< 80
Elevated120 – 129AND< 80
Stage 1 – High Blood Pressure130 – 139OR80 – 89
Stage 2 – High Blood Pressure140 or higherOR90 or higher
Hypertensive CrisisAbove 180AND/ORAbove 120

To oversimplify for a “these two numbers” answer, under 120/80 is generally considered good, unless it is under 90/60, in which case that becomes hypotension.

Hypotension, the blood pressure being too low, means your organs may not get enough oxygen and if they don’t, they will start shutting down.

To give you an idea how serious this, this is the closed-circuit equivalent of the hypovolemic shock that occurs when someone is bleeding out onto the floor. Technically, bleeding to death also results in low blood pressure, of course, hence the similarity.

So: just a little under 120/80 is great.

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      Naturally, it’s been difficult to recreate such studies in humans, because it’s difficult to find a large sample of young adults willing to have their ovaries whipped out (or even suppressed chemically) to see how badly their metabolism suffers as a result.

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        Down the hatch?

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        This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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