hello to you my blood pressure Warriors in this video I'm gonna talk about systolic and diastolic blood pressure we're gonna look at which of the two numbers is more important there's always two numbers on your blood pressure readings the upper number or the first reading is the systolic blood pressure this is the pressure created when your heart pumps blood into vessels the lower number is the diastolic blood pressure this is a baseline pressure when your heart is at rest it's important to know how to react when either number is out of range so let's first
talk about what doctors historically thought about blood pressure readings doctors earlier considered the diastolic blood pressure to be more important the general view was that systolic blood pressure normally increases with age the upper number was ignored unless it was extremely out of range however the diastolic blood pressure was treated with medication even when it was slightly off the understanding was that the baseline pressure when the heart is at rest determined the overall health of the heart but several recent studies have different conclusions first let's look at the risk of having high systolic blood pressure number
having high systolic blood pressure can be caused by artery stiffness an overactive thyroid or even diabetes occasionally it can be caused by heart valve problems and older people are at higher risk of having high systolic blood pressure number in fact high systolic blood pressure is the most common form of high blood pressure in people older than age 65 and if you're over 50 and you have a high systolic number you might be at a greater risk of having serious cardiovascular problems such as having a heart attack a bleeding stroke or a severe pain in the
chest which is called angina high systolic blood pressure can even result in chronic kidney disease these are all very serious medical conditions now let's look at the risks of having a high diastolic blood pressure having an elevated diastolic pressure could weaken the main artery of your body this artery is known as the aorta it runs centrally from your heart through your abdomen and then it branches out as separate arteries into the legs a weakened portion of the aorta in the abdominal area could turn into a bulge in this bulge is caused by the over stretching
of the aorta in the belly region continuously high diastolic pressure could make the Bulge rupture and this results in serious internal bleeding that could be fatal the medical term for this life-threatening condition is abdominal aortic aneurysm so which is more important both numbers are equally important and this is evident now from the specific risk associated with each number if your systolic blood pressure reading is high it's not safe to ignore it the same goes with your diastolic blood reading both should be taken seriously and just because you're taking blood pressure medication doesn't necessarily mean that
you're out of out of the woods one study compared a group of people with no history of high blood pressure with a group of people who were controlling their blood pressure with blood pressure medications the study found that the group that was controlling their blood pressure with medications still had a higher risk heart disease than those who had no history of high blood pressure in fact the study found that a 30 year old with high blood pressure has a 63 percent lifetime risk of developing heart disease compared with 46 percent for a person with normal
blood pressure this study demonstrates that even though you're taking medications you still have a high risk of heart problems the key is to continue to monitor both your numbers regularly and remember eating healthy exercising and constantly tracking both your diastolic and systolic blood pressure numbers is important to maintaining a healthy heart hey blood pressure warriors if you suffer from high blood pressure like me why not click on the subscribe button in the bell icon so that I can send you my healthy blood pressure videos the moment they're released have a happy and healthy day
