3
EN
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON BLOOD
PRESSURE AND ITS MEASUREMENT
What Is Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is the pressure that your blood extends to
the vascular walls. Blood pressure is necessary to provide
for constant blood flow inside the body. Thanks to it the
cells get oxygen that provides for their normal functioning.
The heart performs the function of a «pump», sending
blood to the blood vessels. Each heart beat creates a
certain level of the blood pressure.
There are 2 kinds of blood pressure: a systolic (upper)
one, which corresponds to the heartbeat pushing blood
into the arteriae; and a diastolic (lower) one, which means the blood pressure between
two heartbeats.
Blood pressure is subject to fluctuations during the day even in healthy people. The fluc
-
tuations are influenced by a number of factors - time of day, person’s condition, physical
or mental activity, environment, etc.
Day-Night Fluctuations of the Blood Pressure
An increase of blood pressure increases the burden onto the heart, affects blood vessels
making their walls thick and less elastic.
One of the features of the hypertension is its ability to remain unnoticed for the patient
at its early stages. That’s why the self control of the blood pressure is so important. With
the illness progressing, headaches and regular dizziness appear, the sight declines, the
functioning of vitals (encephalon, heart, kidneys, blood vessels) breaks down. Without
special treatment the complications of hypertension might be kidney damages, breast-
pang, paralytic stroke, aphasia, dementia, heart attack and stroke.
Which Values are Normal?
The world standard as for the norms of the blood pressure is the Classification* of the
World Health Organization (WHO):
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00
DIA blood pressure
SYS blood pressure
Time (hours)
mmHg