Q: What is blood pressure?

Answer:

“Pressure” is the amount of force pushing against something. In order to understand blood pressure, you must know about the heart. The heart is the “pump” for blood in your body. There are four parts called chambers. Each chamber has a valve allowing blood to flow in only one direction. As the top chambers (called atria) squeeze, blood is forced into the lower chambers (called ventricles). The ventricles then squeeze… forcing the blood out into the body. This happens very quickly, and the force of the ventricles (mainly the left side) pushing the blood through the blood vessels can be measured with a blood pressure cuff.

This pressure is called the systolic pressure, which is the top number of your blood pressure. The bottom number is called the diastolic pressure and is the pressure in the blood vessels when the heart is between beats (not squeezing) allowing it to refill and prepare for the next beat (or squeeze). Normal blood pressure is defined as 120/80 for adults and lower for children. If you want to know your blood pressure, your nurse or doctor will be happy to help you.

Burton Shelton, RN, MSN, FNP-C, Cardiology

Durham Regional Hospital and Triangle Heart Associates

Activities:

Survey It!

Take a survey in your school and find out how many students have had their blood pressure taken. Chart your results.

Look into day’s Herald-Sun and find the Healthy Living section. See if you can find an article about blood pressure. Write a one or two paragraphs summarizing the article you read from the newspaper.