Your heart is made up of special muscles referred to as cardiac muscles. The muscles of your heart are unique and quite different from other muscles and tissues in your body because they have the exceptional ability to beat and hence pump blood around the body. Your heart never rest. It started to beat while you were formed in your mother's womb and it will go on beating steadily (both day and night) throughout your lifetime
Your heart is divided into 4(four) chambers. The lower chambers are referred to as ventricles while the upper chambers are referred to as atrium or auricles. Connected to these various chambers are vessels or tubes that carry blood away from the heart and those that carry blood to the heart. Biologically, the vessels that carry blood away from the heart are known as arteries. While those that carry blood back to heart are known as veins.
The rate at which your heart beats is under the direct control of the nervous system and nerves connected to the cardiac muscles of the heart. The nervous system is a network of nerves around the body, the spine and the brain.
An individual is diagnosed as having a high blood pressure when blood moves through the arteries at a higher pressure than normal. To conclude that someone has a high blood pressure, the blood pressure must be taken at least 2-4 times within a period of 2-3 weeks.
Blood pressure is measured by placing a blood pressure cuff around the patient's arm, inflating the cuff and listening for the flow of blood. In normal individuals, blood pressure normally fluctuates throughout the day. It sometimes rises and sometimes fall. An optimal and normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmHg. When blood pressure stays high, greater than or equal to 140/90mmHg then it is considered a high blood pressure.
The figures and the slash has an in-depth meaning. The first number (i.e 120 or 140) is the systolic blood pressure. This is a measurement of the peak blood pressure when the heart is squeezing or pumping blood out through the arteries. The second number (80 or 90) is diastolic blood pressure. This measures the pressure when the heart is filling with blood and resting.
