Just What Is Normal Arterial Blood Pressure?

By Author: Donald Saunders
Total Articles: 84
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Our blood pressure is always altering and it is very rare for an individual to have a blood pressure reading which is always the same no matter what. 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 eating, sitting, drinking, mowing the lawn, standing up, watching television, taking a shower, walking and nearly anything else you can imagine will affect your blood pressure.

While the fact that your blood pressure is always fluctuating is simply a fact of life it can nonetheless create problems for your doctor who needs to make use of blood pressure to monitor your general health. The challenge is thus to attempt to establish a blood pressure level which we can consider to be a normal average and then to define limits above and below this value which will represent the normal range of blood pressure fluctuation. The starting point here is to examine the pressure in the body's arteries when the heart is pumping freshly oxygenated blood throughout the body.

The blood transports a host of nutrients and ...
... oxygen to all parts of the body through a series of blood vessels starting with the main aorta taking blood from the heart and ending in a mass of tiny capillaries.

The first consideration therefore is precisely how much pressure is required 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 much pressure is required in the capillaries for the nutrients and oxygen to be transferred into the tissues of the body.

Careful study over a number of years has shown that the best arterial pressure to deliver blood to all parts of the body and to enable the transfer of nutrients and oxygen into the tissues of the body is 120 mm Hg. This value represents the normal blood pressure when the heart pumps blood around the body and is generally known as the systolic pressure.

As with most things in life however a pressure slightly above or below this figure is not going to make much difference and the body will still function well enough. However, if the blood pressure falls too low or rises too high then you will start to run into trouble.

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

Here things become a little blurred and the answer varies from individual to individual. Nevertheless generally speaking the upper limit for blood pressure in the majority of people is about 140 mg Hg and the lower limit is about 90 mg Hg.

Perhaps the most important point at which to start however is to establish the figure which is right for you and which takes into account things like your age and general health as well as your lifestyle. Once you have agreed this figure with your doctor it is then simply a matter of keeping an eye on you blood pressure.