In order to monitor your he alth, it is very important to know your average arterial pressure, which will allow you to notice the appearance of problems with the heart or blood vessels in time. True, it is impossible to take these readings, so you will have to calculate their value yourself, focusing on a special formula.
What is mean pressure?
First of all, you should remember that blood pressure itself is the force with which blood acts on the vascular walls. There are two types - systolic (upper) and diastolic (lower). Upper blood pressure allows you to find out with what force the blood acts on the vascular walls at the moment when the heart throws another portion of blood into the body. In turn, low pressure shows the strength of the action of blood at the time of cardiac pause.
But in addition to these types of pressure, there is also the mean arterial blood pressure, which shows the strength of its effect on the vascular walls over the entire cardiac cycle. And unlike diastolic and systolicpressure, this indicator cannot be seen on the device, it can only be calculated using a special formula. Each of us can do this, most importantly, arm yourself with a piece of paper, a pen, a calculator and a tonometer.
What can affect mean blood pressure?
Before we start studying the formulas for mean arterial pressure, let's find out what can cause it to decrease or increase. After all, in order to get the most accurate data about your he alth, a few days before the examination, you should try to exclude some factors that affect pressure from your life.
- Food should be balanced and correct, so before measuring pressure, you should stop taking coffee and foods containing a lot of s alt and spices.
- Stress can cause massive pressure spikes, so don't take readings when you're overexcited.
- Pressure is affected by physical activity, which can increase it, so measure it only when you are resting and feeling relaxed.
- A couple of days before measuring pressure, you should stop drinking strong drinks and smoking.
Blood pressure measurement
All formulas for calculating mean arterial pressure assume that a person must know their systolic and diastolic pressure, which can be found using a tonometer. This device can be easily bought at any pharmacy. How are youthere will be this device, you will need to calm down as much as possible and start researching.
First of all, you should feel your pulse with your thumb on your wrist or the inside of your elbow. Then we take a tonometer and fix its cuff on the biceps of the arm where you felt the pulse, fix it with Velcro (but not quite tight) and start working with a pear. After that, we take a phonendoscope and apply its head to the place where you felt the pulse. A phonendoscope is needed in order to know that you have sufficiently inflated the cuff.
Know it will be when you sound of blood pulsing will completely disappear. So if you do not hear anything in the phonendoscope, you should immediately begin to deflate the cuff. As soon as the first beat of the pulse is heard after this, you should look at the pressure gauge and write down the value you see, which will be your systolic pressure.
After that, you need to continue listening again, and as soon as the sound in the phonendoscope stops again, this will mean that the arteries have entered a state of rest, you should look at the readings of the device again and write them out, as they will show your diastolic pressure.
Standard calculation formula
Now that we have learned how to calculate diastolic and systolic pressure, we can begin to determine the mean arterial pressure. There is a time-tested standard formula for this.
Average BP=(2Diast BP + Systol BP)/3
That is, if your diastolic pressure is 90mmHg, and systolic - 125 mmHg, then:
Average BP=(290+125)/3=101.67 mmHg
If rounded up, it turns out that the average pressure of a person from the example will be 102 mmHg
Alternative calculation formula
There is also another formula for checking mean arterial pressure. According to this technique:
AvgBP=(SystolBP - DiastolBP)/3 + DiastolBP
If we take the systolic and diastolic pressure data from the previous example, we get the following result:
AverageBP=(125-90)/3+90=101, 67
Again, we round the data obtained and we get that the average pressure will be equal to 102 mmHg
Formula 3
You can also find out the average blood pressure using another formula.
Average BP=(2Diast BP)/3 + Systol BP/3
Again, to test this formula, we take the data from the previous examples, where the diastolic pressure is 90 mmHg and the systolic pressure is 125 mmHg. In this case:
Average BP=(290)/3+(125/3)=101.67 mmHg
Round the data again, and we see that the formula is correct, and the average human pressure is 102 mmHg
Formula 4
Finally, there is another formula that allows you to calculate the mean arterial pressure. True, for this formula we will have to take into account the pulse pressure, which is the difference betweensystolic pressure and diastolic.
AvgBP=DiastolBP + PulseBP/3
We take the same diastolic and systolic pressure data as in the first example, and as a result we get the following picture:
Pulse BP=125-90=35 mmHg
AverageBP=90+35/3=101, 67
That is, again we get that the average pressure after rounding will be 102 mmHg
Calculating ideal blood pressure
In order to be able to decipher the results, you should first find out what your ideal mean arterial pressure will be. In order to do this, you will first need to weigh yourself, then calculate your ideal systolic and diastolic pressure, and then find out using the above formulas and the data obtained.
- Ideal Diast BP=63+(0.1your age) + (0.15your weight)
- Ideal SystolBP=109+(0.5your age) + (0.1your weight)
Assume for example that a person weighs 65 kg and is 34 years old. According to the above formulas, we get:
- Ideal Diast BP=63+(0.134)+(0.1565)=76.1 mmHg
- Ideal SystolBP=109+(0.534)+(0.165)=132.5
Now we substitute the obtained data, rounded to whole numbers, into the standard formula for calculating the average pressure and get:
Ideal Avg. BP=(276+133)/3=95 mmHg
Thus, the ideal average pressure of the person we took as an example should be95 mmHg, which is slightly lower than the real result.
Normal mean arterial pressure
Now, in order to learn how to decipher the received data, let's find out what the normal average pressure should be. That is, not the most ideal one, with which you can even fly into space, but the usual average pressure, which makes it clear that a person is completely he althy. And before we find out the norm of this type of pressure, we should, of course, find out what the norm of diastolic and systolic pressure will be, because we take these indicators in order to find out about the average pressure.
So, the norm of diastolic pressure is 65-85 mm Hg, while in some people even an indicator in the range of 60-90 mm Hg is considered normal, which, however, portends the risk of developing those or other cardiovascular disease. The norm of systolic pressure is 110-130 mm Hg, and sometimes the pressure of 100-140 mm Hg is also considered normal, since sometimes the pressure is too high as a result of certain physical exertion or malnutrition.
Well, the normal average pressure is 70-110 mmHg, therefore, if the figure obtained during the calculation fits into this interval, then everything is normal with your he alth and you should not worry. True, if the final result is too close to the normal range, then this should already make you think about your he alth and see a doctor to make sure that everything is fine with your heart and blood vessels.
Transcript of results
Now that you know what the average blood pressure should be, let's try to figure out how you can decipher the results obtained after the calculations. As we can see, our result is 102 mmHg, which is the norm, but the indicator is still approaching the upper limit of the average pressure.
In general, if a person's average pressure exceeded the norm, that is, reached more than 110 mm Hg, then his heart is working too hard, which is a fairly common picture. This can lead to a heart attack, heart failure and hypertensive crisis. So, if you notice symptoms such as frequent dizziness, headaches, flies before your eyes, tinnitus, a feeling of pressure on your eyes or reddening of your face, you should immediately consult a doctor so that he can prescribe the appropriate treatment.
However, you yourself can try to reduce the pressure. To do this, you need to massage the auricles with the pads of your fingers, apply ice to your head or make a hot bath. Deep breathing is also very helpful in reducing pressure.
If a person’s average blood pressure is below normal, that is, their indicator is less than 70 mm Hg, this means that the heart is working too weakly, which means that the organs receive an insufficient amount of blood, which can lead to to very sad consequences. Moreover, if the pressure is only slightly less than normal, thenthis practically will not affect the body, and the person will feel only weakness, apathy, lethargy and fatigue, which will pass after a short rest.
And if the average pressure is less than 60 mm Hg, then this can lead to oxygen starvation of the brain and internal organs, the consequences of which will be irreversible. Therefore, in case of excessively low pressure, you should also consult a doctor so that he selects the appropriate medication and suggests how you can adjust your lifestyle to avoid the development of hypotension.
