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What is hypertension and how is it measured?
If you have “hypertension”, it means your blood pressure is high. Blood pressure is measured by a cuff placed on your upper arm, and the measurements include systolic and diastolic values. The diastolic pressure is the “bottom number” of the blood pressure reading and reflects the pressure in your arteries when the heart is at rest and filling. If the diastolic blood pressure is consistently higher than 90 mm Hg, it means that you likely have hypertension. The systolic value is the “top number” and reflects the amount of pressure your heart has to generate to pump blood to the rest of your body. If it’s greater than 140 mm Hg, that is also abnormal. If both values are high, it usually means that blood pressure is high. Sometimes the systolic value is temporarily high because of stress, anxiety or pain, and therefore is a less reliable way of diagnosing blood pressure. That’s why, in pregnancy, we focus more on the diastolic value: Hypertension is diagnosed if the diastolic is higher than 90 mm Hg on several readings.
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