
#MALE BLOOD PRESSURE CHART BY AGE FREE#
The Stroke Foundation provided 17,918 free blood pressure checks to New Zealanders across the country in the last 12 months.Ī blood pressure check is quick and painless. High blood pressure is when it is consistently around or over 140/90. Normal blood pressure is around 120/80 (said as "one-twenty over eighty") or lower. It often involves a cuff being placed around your arm and inflated - it feels tight but doesn't hurt. Your doctor will be able to carry one out for you, as well as some chemists. 1Ī blood pressure check is quick and painless. Recent research estimates a third of these people don't know it as high blood pressure often has no symptoms. One in five New Zealanders experience high blood pressure. A person with high blood pressure is up to seven times more likely to have a stroke than someone with normal or low blood pressure. High blood pressure is the number one modifiable risk factor for stroke. It puts too much pressure and stress on the walls of blood vessels and increases the risk of both bleeds and blood clots. Will be reviewing that data to decide how they might change current recommendations.Getting regular blood pressure checks can be your best defence against stroke. New data from that study was released last month. In September, federal health officials abruptly ended a large study of adults 50 and older at high risk for heart disease when it became clear that lowering their systolic pressure to under 120 rather than 140 dramatically cut the risk of heart attack, heart failure and Elliott Antman, the heart association’s immediate past president, said, “we might allow the blood pressure to creep up to 150.”īut treatment recommendations for everyone could soon become more aggressive. The American College of Cardiology still recommends getting blood pressure below 140/90 in people up to 80 years old, and the American Heart Association says blood pressure should be under 140/90 until aboutĪge 75, at which point, Dr. James, the first author.īut patients 60 or older who already take medication to get their pressure below 140/90 should not change course, he said.

Recommended that people 60 and older whose pressure is over 140/90 but less than 150/90 could take other steps like losing weight, exercising and reducing salt intake, said Dr.

Those guidelines, published in the journal JAMA,

Last year, a panel of experts relaxed recommendations for people 60 and older, saying drug treatment should only start at pressures of 150/90. The measurements in between are considered prehypertension.Įxperts disagree about whether older patients should be treated with medication to get their blood pressure below 140/90, because that often requires using several drugs, which may interact with other medications,Īnd the treatment can cause dizziness and increase the risk of falls. A healthy blood pressure would be below both these numbers, indicating a low risk of heart attacks and stroke. Number, 80, is diastolic pressure, when the heart is at rest between beats. The top number, 120, is systolic pressure, when the heart beats and is pumping blood. Normal blood pressure is a reading below 120/80. While there is debate over how aggressively high blood pressure should be treated in older patients, the definition of a healthy blood pressure does not change with age for the general population.
