Heart Drops - 2. - Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is created by the force of the heart pumping blood around your body. Blood pressure measures the pressure within your arteries and the resistance your heart has to pump against to get blood to flow around the body. Normal blood pressure delivers an effective blood supply to all parts of the body. High blood pressure is called 'hypertension', and low blood pressure is called 'hypotension'.

According to the NZ Ministry of Health, high blood pressure is responsible for an amazing 43% of all deaths in the NZ population aged 65 and over in 1999. Incredible – that is almost half of all deaths!
10% of the (whole) NZ population take some form of prescribed BP pharmaceutical drugs.
Among those 65 years and over, 36 percent said they were currently taking blood pressure pills. About 66 percent of men aged 75 and over had high blood pressure, but only 36 percent were on medication for it. There is also evidence that taking pharmaceutical medication was not always effective in alleviating the problem.
There is a high level of unrecognised high blood pressure among older people. Blood pressure is most evident among women aged 75 and over, where 72 percent had high blood pressure but 28 percent were not on medication for it. Among the 44 percent of the elderly who were on medication, half still had high blood pressure.

What is High Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure is diagnosed when it has been measured several times and the systolic number (the first number) is greater than 140 or the diastolic number (the second number) is greater than 95. Either systolic, diastolic, or both may be abnormal. According to statistics, one in five NZ adults have high blood pressure. In America, but only 68 % of those actually with high pressure are aware of it, and thousands of Kiwis may not even know they potentially have it, and only 27 % actually have it under control. Similar figures relate to Australia and NZ.

A - Systolic pressure This is the first number, systolic pressure is the pressure that occurs when the heart contracts and forces blood through the arteries; think of this like the water that comes out of your tap when you open it.

B - Diastolic Pressure This is the second number, diastolic pressure is the pressure while the heart is relaxed. Think of this like you are measuring the pressure in the pipes (blood vessels) with the tap shut.

The systolic number is placed over or before the diastolic number and is always the higher of the two numbers. 110/70 is spoken as "110 over 70.

Normal blood pressure is 120 (systolic) over 75 -80 (diastolic) or lower. Hypertension is defined as blood pressure averaging 140/90 or higher in at least two preferably three separate measurements.

Systolic blood pressure (top number) does not concern doctors too much unless it gets really high (over 140 - 160) because it measures the pressure created against the arterial walls when the heart is pumping. A systolic change from 135 to 145 is usually insignificant, but check with your doctor. It is the diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) that causes concern when it goes over 90 because it measures the pressure created against the arterial walls when the heart is resting.

You don't want a lot of pressure against your arteries (pipes) constantly as that can cause them to balloon out (aneurysm) or a stroke may occur. When your pipes get older, they may get clogged up inside (atherosclerosis – plaque build up in the arteries) or maybe even hard or brittle with calcium deposits, etc (arteriosclerosis – hardening of the arteries). Clean water, like your blood, will mean clean pipes, so keep your kidneys and liver in good shape, and your pipes (and circulation) will look after themselves a lot better. Doing an annual detox is a good idea, although not often recognised by your doctor as being of any help with improving your health.

Classification of Blood Pressure
Condition	Systolic BP	Diastolic BP	What to do
Normal	Less than 130	Less than 85	Recheck in 2yrs
High-Normal	130 - 139	85 - 89	Recheck in 1yr
Hypertension
Stage 1	140 - 159	90 - 99	Confirm within 2 months
Stage 2	160 - 179	100 - 109	See your doctor in a month
Stage 3	180 - 209	110 - 119	See your doctor in a week
Stage 4	210+	120+	Needs immediate attention

High blood pressure is one of the most serious of health problems in this country; yet some sufferers never even experience warning symptoms. It is potentially dangerous because it makes the heart work too hard, and also makes the walls of the arteries hard and as a result, the disease slowly destroys multiple organs and tissues until a health crisis inevitably becomes apparent.

High blood pressure significantly increases your risk for heart disease and stroke, the first- and third-leading causes of death for Australians and New Zealanders. High blood pressure can also cause other problems, such as heart failure, kidney disease, and even blindness

Blood pressure is controlled by a complex regulatory system involving your heart, blood vessels, brain, kidneys, and adrenal glands. It is quite normal for your blood pressure to fluctuate often, even minute to minute. There is even a condition known as “white coat hypertension”, where a patient’s blood pressure is high in the doctor’s office.

You can find out if you have high blood pressure by having your blood pressure checked regularly. Your doctor will diagnose you with high blood pressure on the basis of several readings, taken on different visits to his or her rooms. A consistent blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher is considered high blood pressure.

Although many millions of dollars are spent annually in New Zealand for the treatment and detection of cardiovascular disease, current conventional treatments have done little to reduce the number of those with hypertension. Natural medicine offers a most effective way to decrease the rising number of people with high BP. Research has found a variety of a natural therapies to be successful in reducing high blood pressure including diet, exercise, stress management, nutritional supplements, and herbal medicines such as Heart Drops.
Do you have high blood pressure? And more importantly