In order to monitor your health, it is very important to know your average blood 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 their value will have to be calculated independently, focusing on a special formula.
What is mean pressure?
First of all, remember that blood pressure itself is the force with which blood acts on the vascular walls. It happens in 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 ejects another portion of blood into the body. In turn, low pressure indicates the effect of blood at the time of a heart pause.
But besides these types of pressure, there is also an average arterial blood pressure, which shows the strength of its effect on the vascular walls for the entire cardiac cycle. And unlike diastolic and systolic pressure, 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 average pressure?
Before we begin to study the formulas of average blood pressure, let's find out what can lead to its decrease or increase. After all, in order to get the most accurate data about your health, a few days before the examination, you should try to exclude some factors that affect blood pressure from your life.
- Food should be balanced and proper, so before measuring pressure, you should refuse to take coffee and dishes containing a large amount of salt and spices.
- Stress can cause a severe pressure surge, so it is better not to take readings in an overexcited state.
- Physical activity affects pressure, which can increase it, so you should only measure it when you are resting and feeling relaxed.
- A couple of days before measuring the pressure, you should stop drinking strong drinks and smoking.
Blood pressure measurement
All formulas for calculating mean arterial pressure suggest that a person should know his systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which can be learned using a tonometer. This device can easily be bought at any pharmacy. How will you have this device, you will need to calm down as much as possible and begin the study.
The first thing to do is to feel your pulse on the wrist or the inside of the elbow with your thumb. Then we take a tonometer and fix its cuff on the biceps of that hand where you felt for a pulse, fasten it with Velcro (but not quite tight) and start working with a pear. After that, take a phonendoscope and apply its head to the place where you felt your pulse. A phonendoscope is needed in order to find out that you have sufficiently inflated the cuff.
It will be known when the sound of the pulsation of blood completely disappears. So if you don’t hear anything in the phonendoscope, you immediately need to start letting air out of the cuff. As soon as after this the first pulse beat is heard, you should look at the manometer and record the value you saw, which will be your systolic pressure.
After this, 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 again look at the readings of the device and write them out, since they will show your diastolic pressure.
Standard calculation formula
Now that we have learned how to calculate diastolic and systolic blood pressure, we can begin to determine the average blood pressure. To do this, there is a standard formula, time-tested.
Sredol = (2 * diastolad + systolad) / 3
That is, if you have a diastolic pressure of 90 mmHg and a systolic pressure of 125 mmHg, then:
AMA = (2 * 90 + 125) / 3 = 101.67 mm Hg
If you round, it turns out that the average pressure of the person from the example will be 102 mmHg.
Alternative calculation formula
There is also another formula for checking mean blood pressure. According to this technique:
Sredol = (SystolAD - DiastolAD) / 3 + DiastolAD
If we take the systolic and diastolic pressure data from the previous example, then we get the following result:
Medium pressure = (125-90) / 3 + 90 = 101.67
Again, we round off the data and we get that the average pressure will be equal to 102 mmHg.
Formula number 3
You can also find out the average blood pressure using another formula.
Sredol = = (2 * DiastolAD) / 3 + SystolAD / 3
Again, to verify this formula, we take data from past examples where diastolic pressure is 90 mmHg and systolic pressure is 125 mmHg. In this case:
AMA = (2 * 90) / 3 + (125/3) = 101.67 mm Hg
Again, round off the data obtained, and we see that the formula is correct, and the average human pressure is 102 mmHg.
Formula number 4
And finally, there is another formula that allows you to calculate the average blood pressure. True, for this formula we will have to take into account the pulse blood pressure, which is the difference between systolic pressure and diastolic.
SredAd = DiastolAD + PulsAD / 3
The data of diastolic and systolic pressure are the same as in the first example, and as a result we get the following picture:
Pulse BP = 125-90 = 35 mmHg
AMA = 90 + 35/3 = 101.67
That is, again we get that the average pressure after rounding will be 102 mmHg.
We calculate the ideal blood pressure
In order to be able to decipher the results, you should first find out what your ideal average blood pressure will be. To do this, you will need to first weigh yourself, then calculate the ideal systolic and diastolic pressure, and then find out what is needed using the above formulas and the data obtained.
- Ideal Diastol AD = 63+ (0.1 * your age) + (0.15 * your weight)
- Ideal SystolAD = 109+ (0.5 * your age) + (0.1 * your weight)
Imagine, for example, that a person weighs 65 kg, and his age is 34 years. According to the above formulas, we get:
- Ideal Diastol AD = 63+ (0.1 * 34) + (0.15 * 65) = 76.1 mmHg
- Ideal Systol AD = 109+ (0.5 * 34) + (0.1 * 65) = 132.5
Now we substitute the obtained data, rounded to integers, in the standard formula for calculating the average pressure and get:
Ideal Medium AMP = (2 * 76 + 133) / 3 = 95 mmHg
Thus, the ideal average pressure of the person whom we took as an example should be 95 mmHg, which is slightly lower than the real result.
Normal mean blood pressure
Now, in order to learn how to decipher the obtained data, let's find out what the normal average pressure should be in general. That is, not the most ideal with which you can even fly into space, but the usual average pressure, which makes it clear that a person is completely healthy. 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 average pressure.
So, the norm of diastolic pressure is 65-85 mm Hg, while in some people even an indicator within 60-90 mm Hg is considered normal, which, however, portends the risk of developing certain cardiovascular diseases. The norm of systolic pressure is 110-130 mm Hg, and sometimes, 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 mm Hg, therefore, if the figure obtained during the calculation fits into this interval, it means that everything is normal with your health and you should not worry. True, if the final result is too close to the norm, then this should already make you think about your health and consult a doctor to make sure that everything is fine with your heart and blood vessels.
Deciphering the results
Now that you know what the average blood pressure norm should be, let's try to figure out how to decipher the results obtained after making the calculations. As we can see, our result is 102 mm Hg, which is the norm, but the indicator is nevertheless already approaching the upper limit of average pressure.
In general, if the average pressure in a person exceeded the norm, that is, reached more than 110 mm Hg, then his heart is working too intensively, which is a fairly common picture. This can lead to a heart attack, heart failure, and a hypertensive crisis. So, having noticed such symptoms as frequent dizziness, headaches, flies in front of the eyes, tinnitus, sensation of pressure on the eyes or redness of the skin of the face, you should immediately consult a doctor to prescribe the appropriate treatment.
However, you yourself can try to reduce the pressure. To do this, massage the ear with your fingertips, apply ice to your head or make a hot bath. Deep breathing also helps to relieve pressure.
If the average pressure in a person is below normal, that is, their indicator is less than 70 mm Hg, this means that the heart works too weak, which means that the organs receive insufficient blood, which can lead to very sad consequences. Moreover, if the pressure is only slightly less than normal, then this will practically not affect the body, and a person will feel only weakness, apathy, lethargy and fatigue, which will pass after a short rest.
And if the average pressure indicator 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 in order to avoid the development of hypotension.