What do the blood pressure numbers mean and how do they relate to each other?

Question

Basically, I’ve always been really healthy, went to the doctor, got my BP (104/68) and was told it’s really healthy.

Then I said (to my Mom, an RN) “would it be better to be 104/80 or 104/60” and she just looked at me like I was crazy, then told me 104/60. Then I said, “but would it be better to be 100/72 or 104/68?” And she was just done with me at that point and I just don’t understand what these numbers mean and the internet is too advanced for me.

In: Biology

Answer 1

ELI5: top number is when the heart is squeezing. The bottom number is when the heart is relaxing.

ELI 15: top number is heart squeezing blood out of the heart. Your arteries resist this (because equal/opposite reaction). Bottom number is heart relaxing… your arteries still push back.

As for health of the numbers, that’s a little more than ELI5… but the basics are you want all of the numbers to be lower, including your pulse rate. A heart that only has to beat 60x per minute to perfuse the body is healthier than a heart that has to beat 100x per minute. The normal range of heart rate for an adult is 60-100, with 60 being on the much healthier side. For blood pressure, it’s the same thing. You want the lowest blood pressure you can have. With that, you need something called an “mean arterial pressure”, because you heart pumps blood to all your organs. One of those organs is your kidney, and that needs a mean arterial pressure of 70, otherwise there isn’t enough pressure to filter your blood properly. A BP of 90/50 would be adequate (depending on the person), but a BP of 90/60 would be more safe(as we want the MAP to stay above 70 at all times, and 50 has the potential for your map to be lower than 70)…. 120/80 is considered average. 90-139/50-89 is considered “healthy”. Below those numbers and your kidneys and brain don’t function (or won’t for long). Above those numbers you start looking at stroke range. Then you get into complicated things like a widened or narrowed BP. 100/90, for instance, is a very dangerous BP, as is 180/60 (but for different reasons).