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Normal blood pressure has been traditionally been 120/80 and in the past it was described as "textbook". And as long as your AVERAGE (not all readings) stay 140/90 or less it is still OK. Lately, as with cholesterol, they have been lowering the numbers believing that it will result in greater health, but the evidence is abysmally lacking (and I often wonder if it's not to get more of the populace on expensive medications that are ineffective where none is needed).

The old school of thought is still correct where the LOWER number is more important. This is because the upper number, the systolic, can vary easily with work, stress, or fright more than the lower (the diastolic). Some people get "whitecoat" hypertension in which a reading at the doctor's office is always higher. Before considering drugs which may make you pass out from low blood pressure and have a severe, fatal car accident, it may be wise to have ambulatory monitoring for a day to see if you truly have hypertension.

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14y ago

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