For every heart beat blood is pumping around your body and into your arteries. Systolic pressure is when your heart is at its highest pressure during beats, and when the heart is resting and the pressure falls, this is called diastolic pressure.

Maintaining a healthy blood pressure is extremely important in living a successful healthy and long life. The danger with high blood pressure is that it often goes unnoticed for years, and can lead to serious heart trouble, heart attack or stroke. Not the type of event any of us wishes to experience, especially if high blood pressure can be picked up early and treated accordingly.

Just recently famous UK politician Robin Cook collapsed and was pronounced dead on arrival to hospital from suffering a heart attack directly linked to the high blood pressure disease hypotension. He was only 59; the age we’re people of all society groups should be checking their blood pressure regularly (at least once per year) and seeking treatment if the doctor suggests it’s high for your age.

High blood pressure took the lives of over 40 thousands Americans in 2002 alone and nearly 1 in 3 adults suffers from high blood pressure. Alarmingly, since 1992 up to 2002 the deaths from high blood pressure rose 27% - this is too much. If you’re concerned about your own blood pressure I highly recommend you seek your doctor’s advice and perhaps take a test or even purchase your own blood pressure monitor.