Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

Blood pressure is a measure of the force with which blood pushes against artery walls. Systolic blood pressure (the top number) refers specifically to the pressure when the heart beats and pushes blood through the heart and into the arteries. The pressure between heartbeats, when the heart is at rest, is called the diastolic pressure (the bottom number). According to the JNC7 “normal” blood pressure for an adult is 120 systolic and 80 diastolic or 120/80 mmHg.

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, occurs when arteries have contracted making it more difficult for blood to flow, which puts extra stress on the heart and places excessive pressure on the artery walls usually causing damage to the endothelium (the lining in the arteries). The danger lies in the extra stress on the heart, often causing the heart to enlarge over time, and the increased likelihood for narrowed, stiff blood vessels that are easily blocked. There are a variety of known reasons for why the arteries contract, although there are instances in which there is no explanation found.

It has generally been assumed that heart attack symptoms are the same for both men and women, but a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association seems to indicate that women experience heart attacks, specifically chest pain, differently than men.

The study revealed that fewer than 30% of the 515 women in the study had chest pain or discomfort prior to their heart attack and 43% said they had no chest pain during the attack. When women did report chest pain words such as aching, tightness or pressure were more commonly used than pain. The most common symptoms reported were unusual fatigue (70.6%), sleep disturbance (47.8%) and shortness of breath (42.1%) as much as a month before the attack. The entire report can be found here.

While smoking does seem to temporarily raise blood pressure, a direct long term connection has yet to be found. However, smoking and tobacco do damage blood vessels and arteries which causes them to contract. These narrower passageways do contribute to high blood pressure and hypertension. » More: Does smoking or tobacco use cause high blood pressure?

While it may seem natural to assume that high blood pressure would cause headaches, studies have actually proven that the reverse may be true! The relationship between headaches and high blood pressure is certainly counter intuitive for many people.

A recent study, which used data from two large epidemiologic studies, found information affirming that individuals with high systolic blood pressure actually have less of a chance of getting nonmigrainous headaches or migraines. For patients taking hypertension medication this relationship was not as obvious.

It would appear that the arterial stiffness related to having high blood pressure causes certain behavior in the baroreflex arch, which leads to hypertension-associated hypalgesia, may actually stop pain from being transmitted at the spinal and supraspinal levels.

The study is titled “High pulse pressure protects against headache” andcan be found in the journal Neurology 2008;70:1329-1336 or online.