Normal Range Blood Pressure
Posted by admin on December 7th, 2009
What is normal range blood pressure? What can be considered healthy? You’d think that there would be a range considered “normal” and that anything outside of that is either too low or too high. The reality is quite different.
High Blood Pressure
The easiest place to start is to realise what is high blood pressure. In most countries this is considered to be anything over 140/90 mmHg.
So does that mean that anything below this figure is either normal or low? Not quite.
Prehypertension
In fact, there is an additional zone called “prehypertension” which is between 121/81 and 139/89 mmHg. If you lie in this range then even though you are not classified as “high”, you are still at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease than you would otherwise be if it were lower.
Best Blood Pressure
Really you should be thinking not in terms of “normal” but in “best”. The best figure to have for your bp is between 115/75 and 120/80. This is really the ideal bp where it is not too low but at the same time you have minimized your risks. This should be everyone’s target.
How To Reach The Ideal
Drug companies, their lobbyists and doctors will tell you that drugs are the way. Recently in the UK, the media made a big story of a study that recommended that everyone over 55 should take blood pressure lowering drugs. They are trying to position them as the next big thing since statins. Quite frankly, this is irresponsible advice.
The side effects from such drugs are debilitating and well known. These drugs are not easily tolerated and are often prescribed in all sorts of combinations in a failed effort to control side effects.
This is all needless because natural methods alone such as changing your diet, taking supplements (e.g. taking herbs for bp), getting a little exercise (not much) and looking at your stress levels are sufficient to bring you down to 115/75 without using any drugs whatsoever.
Tags: high blood pressure, normal range blood pressure, prehypertension