Blood pressure is the pressure placed on the walls of arteries when blood is pumped through them. Typically, a healthy person’s blood pressure fluctuates throughout the day in response to a variety of factors, some of which include physical activity, stress or emotions. However, significant fluctuation may be a sign of a more serious condition.
Read on to learn more about fluctuating blood pressure, how it’s diagnosed, risk factors and available treatment options.
What Is Fluctuating Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure measures the amount of pressure blood puts on the walls of a person’s arteries. “Fluctuating blood pressure refers to a condition where someone’s blood pressure fluctuates significantly over time, potentially becoming dangerously irregular,” says Laura Purdy, M.D., a board-certified family medicine physician and chief medical officer of OpenLoop, a digital health care company.
As arteries carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body, their functionality is crucial to a person’s health. Blood pressure is measured with two readings:
- Systolic blood pressure measures the pressure being placed on the arteries while the heart is beating.
- Diastolic blood pressure measures the pressure being placed on the arteries in between heart beats, while the heart is resting.
Fluctuating blood pressure (labile hypertension) is blood pressure that’s difficult to keep within a healthy physiologic range, adds Alexandra Kharazi, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon at CVTS Medical Group Inc in San Diego, California and author of Heart of Fear.
A normal blood pressure reading sits below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mmHg). High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is defined by readings higher than 130/80 mmHg in stage 1 and more than 140/90 mmHg for stage 2 hypertension[1]. If a person’s blood pressure changes quickly between readings without an obvious reason, they’re considered to have fluctuating blood pressure.
“When blood pressure continually fluctuates outside its usual range, it should be cause for alarm and potentially require professional medical help,” says Dr. Purdy.
You can read the rest of this article about Fluctuating Blood Pressure in Forbes Health.
