Blood Pressure and Department of Transportation (DOT) medical exams.

The silent killer. This is a name given to high blood pressure. People don’t know they have it and can therefore have strokes or an aneurism with no visible warning signs.

What is blood pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure in your arteries throughout your body at any given time. Your blood pressure is measured at two intervals: 1) when your heart beats and 2) when your heart is at rest. This is why there are two numbers.

What do the numbers mean and what is normal?

Normal blood pressure is 120/80, or so says the 20 year old who is fit and trim. If you are overweight, your blood pressure better rise, otherwise you will be fainting. Blood needs to get where it needs to go and the pressure in your arteries allows that.

The top number is called the “systolic pressure.” This measurement gives us the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats or works. This number goes up as you walk across the room, do any exercise, go outside, etc. This number goes up and it needs to go up as you do those things. If it didn’t you would fall over. You can water a plant, no big deal. But if you were to water your garden, you need to turn up the pressure so the water can go everywhere. Same concept as your systolic pressure or the top number.

The bottom number is referred to as your diastolic pressure. This number should not fluctuate with the range that your systolic pressure does. This is the pressure in your arteries between beats or when your heart is not working (even if it is only a split second, your heart does rest). Therefore, if this number is high, it would be more of a concern than the top number. A high diastolic number means that your arteries are holding pressure when your heart isn’t doing anything...it’s resting.

So what should your blood pressure be?

Ideally, closer to 120/80, but it is ok if it is within that range. The American Heart Association declared that any numbers higher than 120 for systolic and 80 for diastolic is high. However, the Federal Motor Carriers discussed that anything higher than 140/90 yet lower than 160/100 is considered high and anything over or equal to 160/100 is disqualifying.

It’s high, now what?

We at Active Health Chiropractic, understand that you need to drive to support your family and the last thing we want to do is jam you up. We will work with you to get your blood pressure within range.

I’ll change my diet and I’ll exercise more.

While this is part of a healthy goal, it may not help in a short term. If this were the case, why do people with hardly any body fat with loads of energy still have high blood pressure? We will never say, “Don’t exercise or eat right.” It may be that right now you are in a crisis mode, meaning that we need to get you first aid. Blood pressure medication is very inexpensive AND is the first aid. Lets lower your blood pressure with that, and then diet and exercise to get off of the medication (please don’t get a false sense of hope as it may take more than diet and exercise, read our blog about the kidneys)

But if I sit and relax, my blood pressure will lower.

Great! But what happens when you get up and move around? At Active Health Chiropractic, we take blood pressure seriously due to the nature of it being, “the silent killer." We help you and can recommend physicians for you to see to get medication and we can give you a diet and exercise regimen that will fit your lifestyle and help you to be around for your family. Read what others have said:

—62 year old fit and otherwise healthy woman bus driver; “You saved my life. I had no idea it was this bad and this high. Thank you.”

–-66 year old male truck driver and what his wife said: “You saved him. We would never have discovered a cancer my husband had were it not for getting him the help he needed for his blood pressure.”