With high blood pressure, the heart works harder, your arteries take a beating, and your chances of a stroke, heart attack, and kidney problems are greater. When the level stays high, 140/90 or higher, you have may high blood pressure. Still, for most of your waking hours, your blood pressure stays pretty much the same when you are sitting or standing still. It also can rise when you are excited, nervous, or active. It is lowest as you sleep and rises when you get up. If your blood pressure is 120/80, you say that it is '120 over 80.' The top number is the systolic and the bottom the diastolic.īlood pressure changes during the day. Usually they are written 1 above or before the other, such as 120/80 mmHg.

This is the diastolic pressure.īlood pressure is always given as 2 numbers, the systolic and diastolic pressures. When the heart is at rest, between beats, your blood pressure falls. Your blood pressure is at its highest when the heart beats, pumping the blood. Each time the heart beats (about 60-70 times a minute at rest), it pumps out blood into the arteries. Blood pressure is the force of the blood pushing against the walls of the arteries. Pressure Fact Sheet (PDF) provided by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).īlood is carried from the heart to all parts of your body in vessels called arteries. Blood Pressureįor information regarding blood pressure, please view the High Blood Managing and monitoring hypertension can help minimize the risk of its many complications such as heart failure, heart disease and stroke. Studies show that an estimated 1 in 4 adults suffer from hypertension. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is also known as the silent killer.

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