Blood pressure is one of the many measures that is used to measure overall health and especially the health of the circulatory system. It is the measure of the amount of force that is exerted by the pumping of blood through the circulatory system on the artery walls. The pressure is measured during a heartbeat (systolic) and when between heartbeats (diastolic) and is read as “something-over-something” ex. 130/80. Blood pressure can be taken at home using a blood pressure monitor, allowing it to be monitored over the long term.
Blood pressure numbers are generally categorized into different ranges to help tell the health of the patient. Any reading that is less than 90/60 is considered hypotension, meaning that the person has low blood pressure and that they may experience symptoms such as light headedness when standing up quickly. Readings between 90/60 and 119/79 are optimal and indicate a healthy individual. Anything higher than 120/80 is considered high blood pressure and the severity depends on how high the reading is. High blood pressure means that the heart has to work extra hard to push blood through the arteries and therefore this is a burden on the heart, and can cause damage. Most of the time this is primary hypertension, meaning that there is no obvious underlying medical cause. This can lead to other serious medical problems and causes the person to have a decreased life expectancy.
High blood pressure can have many different causes including smoking, lack of exercise, stress, old age, or genetics. While it can sometimes be controlled by medicine, it is best to try to curb these environmental and habit problems to bring the blood pressure down naturally. While this may be difficult to do, it can actually lengthen life expectancy. By cutting down on junk food, adding a little bit of exercise and cutting back on smoking and alcohol consumption, blood pressure can be lowered without the need for medicine. 
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