Which of the following diastolic pressure readings might indicate hypertension?

If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, talk with your health care team about your blood pressure levels and how these levels affect your treatment plan.

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What are the signs and symptoms of high blood pressure?
What causes high blood pressure?
What problems does high blood pressure cause?
Heart Attack and Heart Disease
Stroke and Brain Problems
Kidney Disease
How do I know if I have high blood pressure?
What can I do to prevent or manage high blood pressure?
What diastolic pressure readings might indicate hypertension?
What is the normal range for diastolic pressure?
What does 120 80 mm Hg mean?
What does diastolic hypertension mean?

What are the signs and symptoms of high blood pressure?

High blood pressure usually has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not know they have it. Measuring your blood pressure is the only way to know whether you have high blood pressure.

What causes high blood pressure?

High blood pressure usually develops over time. It can happen because of unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as not getting enough regular physical activity. Certain health conditions, such as diabetes and having obesity, can also increase the risk for developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure can also happen during pregnancy.

You can manage your blood pressure to lower your risk for serious health problems that may affect your heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.

What problems does high blood pressure cause?

High blood pressure can damage your health in many ways. It can seriously hurt important organs like your heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.

The good news is that, in most cases, you can manage your blood pressure to lower your risk for serious health problems.

Heart Attack and Heart Disease

High blood pressure can damage your arteries by making them less elastic, which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and leads to heart disease. In addition, decreased blood flow to the heart can cause:

Chest pain, also called angina.
Heart attack, which happens when the blood supply to your heart is blocked and heart muscle begins to die without enough oxygen. The longer the blood flow is blocked, the greater the damage to the heart.
Heart failure, a condition that means your heart can’t pump enough blood and oxygen to your other organs.

Stroke and Brain Problems

High blood pressure can cause the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the brain to burst or be blocked, causing a stroke. Brain cells die during a stroke because they do not get enough oxygen. Stroke can cause serious disabilities in speech, movement, and other basic activities. A stroke can also kill you.

Having high blood pressure, especially in midlife, is linked to having poorer cognitive function and dementia later in life. Learn more about the link between high blood pressure and dementia from the National Institutes of Health’s Mind Your Risks® campaign.

Kidney Disease

Adults with diabetes, high blood pressure, or both have a higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease than those without these conditions.

How do I know if I have high blood pressure?

There’s only one way to know if you have high blood pressure: Have a doctor or other health professional measure it. Measuring your blood pressure is quick and painless.

Talk with your health care team about regularly measuring your blood pressure at home, also called self-measured blood pressure (SMBP) monitoring.

High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because it usually has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not know they have it.

What can I do to prevent or manage high blood pressure?

Many people with high blood pressure can lower their blood pressure into a healthy range or keep their numbers in a healthy range by making lifestyle changes. Talk with your health care team about

Getting at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week (about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week)
Not smoking
Eating a healthy diet, including limiting sodium (salt) and alcohol
Keeping a healthy weight
Managing stress

Learn more about ways to manage and prevent high blood pressure.

In addition to making positive lifestyle changes, some people with high blood pressure need to take medicine to manage their blood pressure. Learn more about medicines for high blood pressure.

Talk with your health care team right away if you think you have high blood pressure or if you’ve been told you have high blood pressure but do not have it under control.

By taking action to lower your blood pressure, you can help protect yourself against heart disease and stroke, also sometimes called cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Learn More

Every time your heart beats, blood is pumped through arteries to the rest of your body. The force of the blood moving through the arteries is your blood pressure. Blood pressure readings are measured by two numbers, systolic pressure over diastolic pressure (for example 120/80).
When the heart beats, it contracts, and forces blood through your arteries, which makes your blood pressure go up. This is the systolic blood pressure. When the heart relaxes between beats, the pressure in the arteries goes down. This is the diastolic blood pressure.
Your blood pressure normally rises and falls throughout the day and varies during activities. If you are sick, nervous or in pain, it is common for your blood pressure to be higher than usual. Blood pressure that is high only one time does not mean that you have high blood pressure (hypertension).
High blood pressure makes your heart work harder than it should. Even though you cannot feel it, elevated blood pressure can damage your arteries, increasing your risk for disease in many organs.
You can have your blood pressure measured at PhysicianOne Urgent Care centers in Massachusetts and New York. This is a free service we provide and will not be billed to insurance.
The following provides a general guide for blood pressure readings:

Less than 120 and less than 80 (Normal)
120-129 and less than 80 (Elevated)
130 – 139 or 80 – 89 (High blood pressure; hypertension stage 1)
140 and higher or 90 and higher (High blood pressure; hypertension stage 2)
Higher than 180 systolic or Higher than 120 diastolic (Hypertensive Crisis – Emergency care needed)

With that being said, a single high reading doesn’t necessarily indicate high blood pressure. While blood pressure should normally fall below 120/80 mm Hg for adults over the age of 20, changes in exercise, sleep, posture and stress can impact the numbers. That said, if readings remain at 140/90 mm Hg or above over time, your physician is likely to recommend a treatment program centered on prescription medication and lifestyle changes.
Who Is at Risk?
In most people, systolic blood pressure increases steadily with age, thanks to long-term build-up of plaque and stiffness of arteries. Genetics also play a major role in determining a person’s risk, along with lifestyle choices involving diet and exercise. Your doctor can help determine your risk and come up with a plan to reduce your chances of developing hypertension.
Things to Consider
Usually, physicians pay more attention to systolic blood pressure as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease in people over 50. To better determine whether you have high blood pressure, your physician may ask you to take intermittent readings at home during different times of the day.
In most cases, relatively high readings are not cause for immediate concern; however, if you record a systolic reading of 180 mm Hg or higher or a diastolic reading of 110 mm HG or higher, visit the ER immediately, since this indicates a hypertensive crisis, requiring emergency medical attention.
Symptoms of High Blood Pressure
Unfortunately, most of the time people experience very few symptoms of hypertension, and therefore without measurement, it can easily go unchecked. However, with very high blood pressure, one might experience any of the following symptoms: headache, fatigue, confusion, vision problems, chest pain, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, blood in the urine, pounding in your chest, neck, or ears.
What Can Happen
If left untreated, high blood pressure can cause a range of serious and even fatal health problems, including:

Stroke
Vision loss
Heart attack
Kidney failure
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD)

Fortunately, you can reduce your risk of developing hypertension by making healthier lifestyle choices, including:

Lose weight if you are overweight
Eat foods low in salt, cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fat
Limit alcohol consumption
Get a minimum of 150 minutes of exercise per week

When to Seek Help
Everyone should get a yearly checkup to test for high blood pressure. In certain instances, however, emergency attention may become necessary. When blood pressure soars to dangerously high levels, deadly consequences can result. The most common signs of a hypertensive crisis include chest pain, severe headache, accompanied by confusion and blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, severe anxiety, shortness of breath, seizures, unresponsiveness. If you experience any of these symptoms seek emergency care right away.

What diastolic pressure readings might indicate hypertension?

In general, hypertension is a blood pressure reading of 130/80 mm Hg or higher.

What is the normal range for diastolic pressure?

This is what your diastolic blood pressure number means: Normal: Lower than 80. Stage 1 hypertension: 80-89. Stage 2 hypertension: 90 or more.

What does 120 80 mm Hg mean?

This is called diastolic pressure. Your blood pressure reading uses these two numbers. Usually the systolic number comes before or above the diastolic number. For example, 120/80 means a systolic of 120 and a diastolic of 80.

What does diastolic hypertension mean?

' The diastolic pressure of an adult should typically be 60–80mm Hg, and if the number goes above this, it's considered hypertension. However, if your blood pressure goes over 180/120mm Hg, this is dangerous, and you should seek medical attention immediately.