Those numbers actually show you the pressure your blood is putting on your arteries. Just as how water builds up in a hose until it damages it, your blood can also build up in your arteries until it ruptures it, making you a candidate for strokes or cardiac arrest.

A blood pressure reading can look like this: 120/80 mmHg. The first number represents the systolic blood pressure, which is the pressure your blood exerts on your arteries when your heart beats. The second number represents the diastolic blood pressure, which is your blood pressure when your heart rests between beats.

A blood pressure reading of 120/80 is considered normal. Majority of people have this or a slightly lower blood pressure. Those with slightly higher blood pressure than 120/80 are considered prehypertensive, and this triggers doctors to start treatment to keep the blood pressure from increasing further.

Of the two numbers, it's long been thought that a higher diastolic blood pressure (the second number) contributed to hypertension and its subsequent medical concerns. However, it's been recently suggested that higher systolic blood pressures (the first number) also pose a measure of risk, particularly for individuals past the age of 50.

When your blood pressure reading is 140/90 or higher in two different sessions, then you have hypertension. If you don't treat it immediately, then you are prone to several other medical conditions.

To be able to bring those numbers down to 120/80, doctors may suggest extreme, life-changing practices, such as stop smoking and drinking, start a vigorous exercise regimen, or change diets completely.

When these individuals can't maintain these life-changing practices (and more often than not, they can't), their blood pressure gets back up and their hypertension returns. In other words, hypertension can make some very unpleasant changes in a person's life.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

My Hypertension Program doesn't require you to do any life-changing practices. The truth is, most of the exercises can be done while you go on about your day. Wouldn't you want to be one of my customers who have successfully lowered their blood pressures for good?

So now that you know the meaning of those numbers, it's much more satisfying to see them go down to 120/80 and stay there.

Warm regards,

Christian Goodman