Which is more important, upper (systolic) blood pressure or the lower (diastolic) blood pressure?
Not too long ago, diastolic blood pressure was thought to be more important. Now the consensus is that controlling systolic blood pressure is as important as controlling diastolic blood pressure. I am 67 years old. What is the normal blood pressure for me? A few years back, it was thought that increasing blood pressure was a normal accompaniment of growing old. At that time there were formulae that were supposed to help calculate the right blood pressure based on your age. The prevailing thought is that blood pressure control to the target stated above is important regardless of the age. We do need to follow a bit of common-sensical approach, however. We do not want medicine to be worse than the disease. So it may not make sense to shoot for perfect blood pressure if you are 90 and chances of side effects from medicines are more than the chances of long term benefits from blood pressure control What are the symptoms of high blood pressure? I have some patients who may have headache or
