What is a normal blood pressure?

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Blood pressure is two pressures: the top number - systolic - is the force when your heart squeezes; the bottom - diastolic - is the force while your heart rests between beats. The standard categories: normal is below 120 systolic and below 80 diastolic; elevated is 120-129 with diastolic still under 80; stage 1 hypertension is 130-139 or 80-89; stage 2 is 140 or higher, or 90 or higher. NHLBI uses these thresholds, and either number being high counts - a normal top number with an 88 bottom number is still stage 1.

Context matters for a single reading: caffeine, a full bladder, a just-climbed flight of stairs, stress, and poor arm position all inflate readings. One high reading is not a diagnosis - home monitoring over a week, seated and rested, is how real numbers emerge, and the doctor-office reading is famously the least typical one of your day.

Why the fuss over a number you cannot feel: sustained high pressure quietly damages arteries, heart, kidneys, brain, and eyes over years - it is the leading modifiable driver of strokes and heart disease. Urgency lines: a reading of 180/120 or higher with symptoms - chest pain, severe headache, vision changes, confusion - is an emergency; that same reading without symptoms is a same-day call, not a wait-and-see. Everyday high-normal readings earn lifestyle changes and a provider conversation, not panic.

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What is a normal blood pressure?

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