Blood pressure (BP) is basically the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels. Considering your heart is such a strong, well-developed muscle, imagine the mechanical stress on your blood vessels when the heart contracts.
When this pressure is consistently too high, it is called hypertension, which could have some serious consequences for your health. When it is consistently too low, it’s called hypotension and can be a symptom of another health condition.
BP normally goes up and down to a small extent during the course of the day, depending on what activity you are engaged in and how you’re feeling. It naturally drops when you are at rest or sleeping, and will increase in times of physical activity and stress.
When you undergo a physical examination by a health professional, they will use a blood pressure cuff to measure your BP. What it measures is the force of blood flow through your arteries when the heart contracts and relaxes. The measurement gives the health practitioner a good idea of how well your arteries expand under this pressure. When the heart contracts, the force of the blood pushed

through the arteries is known as systolic pressure and when the heart relaxes between pumps, the pressure in the arteries is known as diastolic pressure. That’s why when you have your readings taken, you will be given two numbers, eg: 120/80, which shows the systolic pressure above and diastolic pressure below.

Why should I know my readings?

If your BP is high, your heart and blood vessels are under strain and will weaken over time. High BP can lead to many serious health problems, including stroke, congestive heart failure, impaired vision and kidney damage.
Abnormally low BP can limit the amount of blood (and therefore oxygen) getting to the brain. This can make you feel lightheaded, nauseous and dizzy and may lead to inexplicable fatigue, blurred vision, muscular weakness, fainting and injury due to falls. It can also be a sign of an underlying neurological or thyroid condition.