When it comes to blood pressure, you may wonder what is systolic blood pressure. There are actually two kinds of blood pressure ? diastolic and systolic. These are both part of your overall blood pressure, but they measure it at different times.
When you see a blood pressure reading, you normally see two numbers. For example: 120/80. The number on the bottom is called diastolic pressure. This is the pressure of your blood pushing against your blood vessels when your heart is between beats.
The top number, in this case 120, is the systolic pressure. This is the higher pressure when your heart is actually contracting. These numbers are measured in mmHg or millimeters of mercury. Mercury is used in the machine that you use to take the blood pressure.
Systolic pressure tends to vary more than diastolic pressure. For example, when you exercise or get nervous, it’s not uncommon for it to go up 20-40 mmHg, but the diastolic pressure may only go up 10 mmHg.
Usually when someone has high blood pressure both their systolic and diastolic pressures are high. But occasionally a person may have only high systolic pressure over 140 and this is called isolated systolic hypertension.
The trouble with this type of hypertension is that when it’s treated with medications, it can often cause the diastolic number to go too low. So you may not be able to have traditional medical treatment for this type of blood pressure and that can lead to heart disease.
Just as any hypertension can cause bad health, isolated systolic hypertension can lead to heart disease, stroke, dementia, and kidney disease. These are very serious and life threatening conditions.
You’ll be even more at risk for these if you have problems such as diabetes, are a smoker, or are overweight or obese. It’s important if you’ve been diagnosed with this type of high blood pressure that you pay careful attention to lifestyle factors.
Making sure you get as close to your ideal weight as possible, stopping tobacco use, lowering the sodium in your diet, and managing stress can all help you to lower blood pressure without medications.
You may also want to look into dietary supplements such as Coenzyme Q10. However, this supplement can also lower diastolic pressure as much as 10mmHg, so it?s important to talk with your doctor before using it.
Understanding what is systolic blood pressure can help you to make sense of your health information and be able to discuss treatment with your doctor.
