Information about Blood Pressure.

Advice and information about blood pressure. 

This information is designed to give you more information about your blood pressure and how you can check it at home with a blood pressure monitor. This will help you to understand more about your treatments and to help you to play a greater role in keeping your blood pressure controlled.

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What is blood pressure?

Your heart pumps blood around your body through a network of tubing called arteries. Every time your heart pumps it forces blood through these arteries and into smaller blood vessels called capillaries. The force that your heart produces in your arteries when it pumps is called your blood pressure. When the heart contracts and forces blood through the arteries your blood pressure goes up, when the heart relaxes it goes down.

This pressure can be measured and is usually written down like this:

140/90mmHg

The top number, which is called the systolic pressure, shows the pressure in your arteries when your heart is forcing blood through them. The bottom number, called the diastolic pressure, shows the pressure in your arteries when your heart relaxes.

Everyone has a different blood pressure and it can change in the same person during the day and night.

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure is also called hypertension. The higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk of heart disease or stroke.

140/90mmHg is the level of blood pressure used to diagnose high blood pressure. If your blood pressure is consistently raised at these levels and above, it will need to be treated. Treatment may involve making changes to your lifestyle and/or taking medication. This level of 140/90mmHg is the level for high blood pressure, whether you are male or female, young or old.

140/85mmHg is the target blood pressure for people who are receiving treatment for their high blood pressure. Exceptions to this is if you have diabetes, kidney disease or have already suffered a stroke or heart attack - it may be worthwhile lowering your blood pressure further.

Why is high blood pressure important? 

It is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and dementia. If you have high blood pressure you are at risk of developing these conditions.
Having high blood pressure causes strain on the vessels carrying blood around your body. This strain can cause vessels to become clogged up or to weaken and this in turn can lead to narrow blood vessels and clots, which can cause damage to the heart or brain.
Having high blood pressure can also cause heart failure. Heart failure is when your heart can not pump blood around the body as well as it should.
High blood pressure can cause kidney failure and some eye conditions.
There are many very good reasons for controlling your blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a serious condition that you should not ignore. It can be lowered by changing your lifestyle or if necessary taking tablets. 

How common is high blood pressure?

In the United Kingdom there are about 16 million people with a blood pressure higher than 140/90mmHg. One in every three women and two in every five men now have high blood pressure, with larger numbers affected in older age groups. For example, about half of all people over the age of 75 have the condition. Although you may be said to have high blood pressure, or a normal blood pressure, it is important to realise that the higher your blood pressure, whatever it is, the higher your risk of heart disease or stroke. This means that all of us should be adopting a lifestyle that will help to lower our blood pressure whether we have high blood pressure or not.

How is blood pressure measured?

Your blood pressure can be measured either by using a device called a sphygmomanometer or by using a digital machine.

A sphygmomanometer is the older kind of equipment that measures blood pressure using a column of mercury - these machines are used les and les as they are considered inaccurate. Increasingly health professionals are using automatic, or partly automatic, digital machines to measure blood pressure. Machine used should be validated by the British Hypertension Society and when used correctly give accurate readings. They use a cuff around your upper arm and will give a readout of your blood pressure. More about blood pressure monitors.

In order to be sure that you have high blood pressure, you will be asked to have readings taken several times. This is to make sure that you have consistently high blood pressure, rather than high blood pressure because you are anxious or nervous in a medical environment or have been rushed  which may result in readings that are not normal for you. This is called white coat hypertension. More about White Coat Syndrome.

What causes high blood pressure?

For most people there is no definite cause for high blood pressure and this is called essential hypertension. The small blood vessels in the body narrow and this causes the pressure to build up, a bit like squeezing a garden hose.

High blood pressure can run in families,  if you have a parent with high blood pressure you are more likely to have high blood pressure yourself. 


Some other conditions are also linked to high blood pressure, such as diabetes, kidney and heart disease. If you have any of these it is important that your blood pressure is well controlled.

Whereas you cannot change your genes, or the fact that you will grow older, you can change your lifestyle. Changing your diet and exercising more will lower your blood pressure. This is something that everyone should do but is particularly important if you have high blood pressure as it may avoid the need for tablets.

Can high blood pressure be treated?

Yes. Lowering blood pressure causes a large reduction in strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and kidney disease that would otherwise have occurred and may reduce your risk of developing some kinds of dementia.

How will my high blood pressure be treated?

How your high blood pressure is treated will depend on how high it is and on what other 'risk factors' you have for heart disease and stroke.

If your blood pressure is between 140-160/90-100mmHg then you will probably be asked to make some changes to your lifestyle. You will probably not need to take tablets providing that the changes you make work. In this way you can lower your own blood pressure without needing to take tablets. However, some people with a blood pressure in this range may be prescribed drugs to take. This is usually if they are older or have other risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
So if you have a blood pressure reading in this range you should:

· Cut down the amount of salt in your food
· Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables every day
· Be active. Take more exercise
· Lose weight if you are over weight
· Cut down on the amount of alcohol you are drinking, if it is excessive

If your blood pressure is over 160/100mmHg then you may be given tablets to take as well as being asked to make changes to your lifestyle. You are aiming to reach a target blood pressure of 140/85mmHg or less whilst making sure that you feel fit and well. .

Changing your lifestyle.

All people who have high blood pressure should make changes to their lifestyle. Sometimes these changes can be enough to lower your blood pressure so yo do not need to take tablets. Even if you do need to take tablets, the changes to your lifestyle will make the tablets more effective.

These are the five main changes you can make:


1. Cut down on your salt

We each eat about 10 grams of salt (sodium chloride) each day and this can easily be reduced by half to 5 grams each day. That means cutting down from a dessert spoon of salt every day to a teaspoon. You should not add salt to food or use it in cooking. However, most salt is hidden in many processed foods and this may not be obvious, for example salt may be hidden in bread, many cereals and ready meals so avoid these high salt foods where possible.

2. Eat more fruit and vegetables

We should all be eating seven to nine portions of fruit or vegetables each day. Fruit and vegetables contain potassium, which has the opposite effect of salt and can help to lower blood pressure. If you can manage to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables and cut down the amount of salt that you eat then you should see your blood pressure fall by quite a large amount.

3. Be more active

Being active can help you to lower your blood pressure. It will also help you to lose weight and reduce the amount of fats (cholesterol) in your blood. If you are not very active now then you do need to take care to begin with and build up gradually. Being active doesn't have to mean jogging, it can mean walking the dog regularly and gradually increasing the amount you do over three to six months. You are aiming to be active for at least 30 minutes, five times a week.

4. Find and reach your ideal weight

Everyone has an ideal weight. Your ideal weight will depend on how tall you are and whether you are male or female. If you are overweight you should try and get down to a weight within the ideal range for you.

Many people find losing weight, and maintaining weight loss, difficult. A healthy diet is an essential first step. Once you are eating a healthy diet cut down the amount of food you eat until you start to lose weight.

5. Drink alcohol in moderate amounts only



As well as the five factors set out above there are two other key risk factors for stroke and heart disease, smoking and eating too much saturated fat. They don't in themselves cause high blood pressure but they do make you more at risk of heart disease or stroke. However, the combined effect of stopping smoking, cutting down the amount of saturated you eat and lowering your blood pressure causes a very large reduction in your risk of having a stroke or having a heart attack.

Further information

How to Measure it properly and ways to help lower it - free factsheet.

First you need an accurate blood pressure monitor and learn how to use it properly.  Free fact-sheet How to Measure Blood Pressure.