An all too common problem with high blood pressure nowadays is that it is so common and so often talked about that far too many people do not appear to treat it with the respect it deserves. The simple fact is high blood pressure, or hypertension (to give it its medical name), is a killer disease and has to be treated as such.

A lot of scientists and doctors have spent a great deal of time and money trying to describe precisely what the true definition of high blood pressure is.

Over the years there have been a large number of studies carried out on this subject which have given the researchers and doctors a wide range of blood pressure values to work with. The results however are often skewed and differ from one country to the next and even from district to district within a specific country. It has been concluded therefore that the true definition of high blood pressure can only be arrived at through continuous observation and experiment.

Normal blood pressure is seen today much like normal body weight in that the defining level is that which is associated with the greatest chance of life expectancy. This is the level at which the heart along with other important elements of the body such as the circulatory system are able to function under optimum conditions without running the risk of heart disease and other related disorders.

There are a number of other considerations that have to be taken into account when defining hypertension and some of these have to be excluded. For instance, If a healthy person becomes their systolic (or pumping) blood pressure can be expected to rise by possibly as much as fifty percent as their blood flow rises in response to emotional excitement or any form of energetic activity. But it will not remain high for very long and as soon as the level of excitement has gone down your blood pressure also returns to normal.

As well as your systolic (pumping) pressure you also have a diastolic (resting) pressure which is the more important and is an excellent guide in ascertaining whether a high blood pressure reading is a false positive. Diastolic pressure is important because it points to the state of your arteries and if you have a high reading it may show that the arteries are constricted and not permitting the free flow of blood.

It is very important to understand that hypertension is not in itself a disease but is a key criterion by which doctors can predict other conditions.

Lastly, it is also necessary to understand that hypertension cannot be cured although it can be very well controlled with the right treatment.

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on many different aspects of blood pressure including what causes high blood pressure and finding the best home blood pressure monitors