Our blood pressure is continually altering and it is very rare to find a person with a blood pressure level that is always the same no matter what. Almost everything we do will have an affect on our blood pressure which will move up and down as we go about our normal day to day business. Simple things such as walking, eating, walking the dog, sitting, mowing the lawn, standing up and just about anything else you can think of can alter your blood pressure.

While fluctuations in our blood pressure are nothing more than a simple fact of life it can of course create difficulties for doctors who need to be able to make use of blood pressure as a monitor of general health. The problem is thus to attempt to define a level of blood pressure that we can consider to be a normal average and then to establish limits above and below this value that will represent the normal range of blood pressure change. A good point at which to begin is to consider the pressure in the arteries of the body as the heart pumps blood to the various organs of the body.

blood carries a host of nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body through a network of blood vessels beginning with the main aorta taking blood from the heart and ending in a multitude of extremely small capillaries.

The first consideration therefore is just how much pressure is needed in the aorta as the blood leaves the heart if it is to reach its destination in far flung areas of the body.

Next, the second consideration is how much pressure is needed in the capillaries to move nutrients and oxygen into the body's tissues.

Careful study over a number of years shows that the best arterial pressure to deliver blood to every part the body and to enable the transfer of nutrients and oxygen into the body's tissues is 120 mm Hg. This value represents the average arterial pressure when the heart pumps blood around the body and is usually called your systolic pressure.

like most things in life though a pressure slightly above or below this level will not make a significant difference and the body will still work quite normally. However, if the blood pressure gets too high or falls too far then you are going to begin to run into trouble.

So exactly what are the lower and upper limits within which the average person should be able to continue operating normally?

Here the edges become a little bit fuzzy and the answer varies from individual to individual. Nevertheless in general the upper limit for blood pressure in most people will be approximately 140 mg Hg and the lower limit will be in the region of 90 mg Hg.

Perhaps the most important point at which to start however is to establish the level that is right for you and that takes into account things like your age and general health together with your lifestyle. Once you have agreed this figure with your physician it is then merely a matter of monitoring you blood pressure.