How Do You Understand Whether Systolic Hypertension Needs To Be Treated?
Systolic hypertension becomes more common with age. Is it important to treat this condition? When you’ve had your blood pressure checked at your doctor’s office, you usually hear the numbers expressed as one number over another i.e. 120/80. The upper number is known as the systolic blood pressure, the force in the blood vessels when the heart is pumping. The lower number, or diastolic blood pressure, is the force in the vessels when the heart is relaxing between beats. If your systolic blood pressure is elevated above 140, you’re considered to have an elevated systolic blood pressure. What does it mean when you have systolic hypertension? Before the results of recent studies showed the importance of the systolic blood pressure, this number usually was given far less regard than the diastolic reading. The diastolic pressure was considered to be the all important number that determined your cardiac risk; and elevated systolic readings were considered to be part of the normal aging proces
