The second (or bottom) number is your Diastolic Blood Pressure: The diastolic number is the pressure your blood exerts on your artery walls when your heart rests between beats. The systolic number is the force, or pressure, being exerted on the walls of your arteries when your heart contracts and pumps oxygenated blood through your arteries to the rest of your body. The first (or top) number in the ratio is your Systolic Blood Pressure.

Blood pressure measurements are expressed as a ratio, for example: 120/80 mmHg. Mercury was used in the first accurate pressure gauges and is still used in medicine today as the standard unit of measurement for pressure). Your blood pressure represents the highest and lowest pressures reached in the heart’s pumping cycle and is measured in millimeters of mercury, or mmHg (mmHg is the pressure it takes to move a column of mercury against gravity. The only way to know if you have high blood pressure (HBP or hypertension) is to have your blood pressure measured. The first visible symptom of untreated high blood pressure may be a heart attack, stroke or kidney damage.

Many people don’t even know they have high blood pressure. High blood pressure is often called “the silent killer,” as its symptoms are generally unnoticeable. High blood pressure can also cause kidney failure, sexual dysfunction, aneurysms, impair vision, and contribute to dementia. If your blood pressure is too high, it can strain and damage your arteries, increasing the risk arteriosclerosis, a condition that makes your arteries get harder, narrower, and clogged with fatty plaque, thus increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. The force of the blood pushing against the walls of your of your blood vessels is your blood pressure. As the blood moves, it pushes against the walls of your blood vessels. When your heart beats, it pumps blood from your heart through your arteries to the rest of your body.

Blood pressure excel spreadsheet