Blood Pressure Numbers: What Do They Mean?

[Retired]

Blood pressure chart: What your reading means
By Mayo Clinic staff

If you've just had your blood pressure taken at your doctor's office, you may wonder what your numbers mean. This blood pressure chart can help you figure out if your blood pressure is at a healthy level, or if you'll need to take some steps to improve your numbers.

Blood pressure readings fall into four general categories, ranging from normal to stage 2 hypertension (high blood pressure). The level of your blood pressure determines what kind of treatment you may need. The blood pressure chart lists the ranges that make up each category.

To get an accurate blood pressure reading, your doctor should evaluate your readings based on the average of two or more blood pressure readings taken while you are seated.

Here's a look at the four blood pressure categories and what they mean for you. If your readings fall into two different categories, your correct blood pressure category is the higher category. For example, if your blood pressure reading is 125/95 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), you have stage 1 hypertension.

Top number (systolic) in mm Hg | | Bottom number (diastolic) in mm Hg| Your category* | What to do**
Below 120 |and |Below 80 | Normal blood pressure | Maintain or adopt a healthy lifestyle.
120-139 |or| 80-89 | Prehypertension | Maintain or adopt a healthy lifestyle.
140-159 | or |90-99 | Stage 1 hypertension | Maintain or adopt a healthy lifestyle. If blood pressure goal isn't reached in about six months, talk to your doctor about taking one or more medications.
160 or more |or| 100 or more | Stage 2 hypertension | Maintain or adopt a healthy lifestyle. Talk to your doctor about taking more than one medication.

*Ranges may be lower for children and teenagers. Talk to your child's doctor if you're concerned your child has high blood pressure.

**Note: These recommendations address high blood pressure as a single health condition. If you also have heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or certain other conditions, you'll need to treat your blood pressure more aggressively.

If your blood pressure is normal, maintaining or adopting a healthy lifestyle can prevent or delay the onset of high blood pressure or other health problems. If your blood pressure isn't normal, a healthy lifestyle ? oftentimes along with medication ? can help bring it under control and reduce your risk of life-threatening complications.

More info:
High blood pressure (hypertension) - MayoClinic.com

 

[Daniel E.]

5 Tricks for an Accurate Blood-Pressure Reading
By Steven Stiefel​

MensHealth.com

An inaccurate blood-pressure reading can cause more trouble than no reading at all--and everything from your shirtsleeve to your last meal to how you sit can skew the score. Follow these tips for a true measure.

Shed your outer layers. Nurses and doctors don't always ask you to take off your shirt before measuring your blood pressure, but wearing a sweatshirt or bulky sweater could lead to an artificially raised reading. Thick sleeves boosted systolic pressure measurements by as much as 22 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) in men with high blood pressure in a Tel Aviv University study. Dress shirts and thin sweaters are fine; a study in the journal Blood Pressure revealed that measurements taken over bare skin were the same as those taken through sleeves less than 2 mm thick.

Elevate your arm to heart level. The blood-pressure guidelines set forth by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute are based on measurements taken from people holding their arms at heart level. Most doctors and nurses slap the cuff on your arm when it's resting on a desk or chair, which can raise both diastolic and systolic pressure by six to nine points, according to a study by Dutch researchers.

Sit for 16. In a study published in the American Journal of Hypertension, researchers discovered that patients who sat for 16 minutes before having their blood pressure checked received more accurate readings than those who sat for less time. When you stand or move around, your blood vessels constrict, and the longer you sit, the more time they have to return to normal size, lowering blood pressure.

Hit the men's room. Holding back your bladder can artificially raise your blood-pressure reading by making your nervous system think you're stressed.

Avoid finger cuffs. All our experts panned finger cuffs. "The closer to your trunk, the more accurate monitors become," says John Elefteriades, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale. Finger cuffs are also susceptible to shifts in body temperature and finger position.

 

[Daniel E.]

From a new article on white coat hypertension:

"Many people feel slightly anxious when going to see a doctor, which is why we have always encouraged blood pressure measuring at home as well as in the clinic, and [this] promotes the use of home blood pressure monitors and ambulatory testing where indicated."

BBC News - Doctors 'cause blood pressure to rise'

 

[Murray]

This is so true about "white coat hypertension". My blood pressure is perfectly fine when I check it at home, but at the doctor's office it is usually elevated.

 

[Retired]

white coat hypertension

Physicians are well aware of the phenomenon, and compensate for it. The topic is part of every physician's training in Family Medicine and is recognized by just about every specialty.

 

[Daniel E.]

Yes, though how effectively some doctors communicate this to patients with anxiety disorder is an open question