quote:
Originally posted by aminator2002:
I would like to understand blood pressure better.
1. How do the gauges that they take blood pressure with work? How do you read it? It always looks to me like the gauge goes up and then just comes back down, but obviously something happens to give a reading.
The nurse uses a stethoscope to listen to the pulse beat
(there are several places that can be used, upper arm, lower arm, leg.. as long as the blood pressure cuff can fit easily around the circumferance) and the blood pressure cuff to constrict the blood flow of the arm.
The gauge measures the pressure of the constriction. As the nurse slowly opens up the vent to release the air, she listens for the first beat. Remember, the cuff is constricting the blood flow.
Now, what does it take to push through a small constriction? Pressure, right? So the first amount of "force" that your heart is able to put to bear to push THROUGH that opening constriction is the HIGHEST pressure your heart generates.
As the nurse keeps slowly unconstricting the cuff, the beats continue. A very good nurse can tell the types of beats there are (there are different sounds to the beats as you listen). The last beat is the LOWEST pressure your heart generates between beats.
In other words, the FIRST beat is the highest pressure... the highest WORKING pressure, the LAST beat is the lowest RESTING pressure. The number you hear the first beat is the upper number of the blood pressure. The number you read as you hear the last beat is the lower number.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4470quote:
2. What do the two numbers mean? I don't mean what are the two numbers... I know they are something and diastolic, but what do they mean as far as pressure goes.
Again, the highest number is the highest working pressure of the heart. Diastolic and systolic are the names of the upper and lower pressures. The lower number is the lowest RESTING pressure of the heart.
quote:
3. I understand why salts increase blood pressure but why does high blood pressure cause so many problems for the heart?
"High blood pressure makes your heart work harder than normal. Both the heart and arteries are then more prone to injury. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, eye damage, congestive heart failure and fatty buildups in arteries called atherosclerotic plaques. If you have high blood pressure, are obese, smoke, or have high blood cholesterol levels or diabetes, your risk of heart attack or stroke goes up several times."
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4656
(Did that information help?)
