The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-07

The Blood Pressure
 During recent years people have, be- come familiar with the method used by physicians in determining the blood pressure. Such estimations are not difficult, and almost every physician possesses the necessary apparatus for finding out what the patients blood pressure may be at any given time. It has, of course, been necessary in arriv- ing at the facts to tabulate the results of blood pressure estimations on large numbers of people so as to determine what are essentially normal figures. The blood pressure as now determined is given in several figures, including the sO-called systolic and disastolic pressures. The systolic pressure rep resents the activity of the heart; and the diastolic pressure the amount of pressure produced by resistance in the smaller vessels near the surface of the body. The difference between the high systolic pressure and the low diastolic pressure is called the pulse pressure.
 In an ordinary adult of middle age, the systolic pressure ranges from no to about 135 millimeters of mercury i; that is to say, the height at which a mercury column would be raised by the pressure within the blood vessels, and the dyastolic pressure ranges from about 70 to 100. After middle life, the systolic pressure is usually little high CT, perhaps 10 millimeters. A persist ent systolic pressure below no and above 135 is to be looked on with sus- picion, and a persistent diastolic pres sure below 70 and about 100 should be investigated. Blood pressure may, of course, be influenced by many fac tors. Investigators have found that changes occur on rising from a sitting to standing posture. Systolic pres sure rises uniformly with age, reaching a uniform adult level at about IS years of age, with no further tendency to rise up to the age of 35 or 40. The | diastolic pressure rises more or less uniformly until about IA years of age then rapidly until the age of 20, when time rapidly until the age of 20, when I it reaches it's maximum. | It has been found that regular phy- sical exercise tends to keep the dias- tolic pressure at lower level by re- ] ducing the resistance in the small blood | vessels near the surface, and thereby giving the heart less work to do. Brit | ish investigators found that the aver age blood pressure was much higher in schools where strict discipline was maintained than in those in which the routine was more easy-going.
 There has been some doubt as to what effects emotions might have on blood pressure. Then general belief is that the blood pressure. is likely to fall during sleep and to begin to rise when the person awakens. Exercise quick ems the heart and dilates the blood ves- sells near the surface. If close attena tion is required so as to place the muscles in tension, the rise may be even higher. A warm shower bath will raise slightly the arterial tension, whereas a cold water shower will low CT the systolic pressure. If one is worried, his pressure may rise; and in the same way, pain and fear may cause rise in blood pressure under some conditions, or lowering of the pressure in others. It is thus clear that a blood pressure reading at any given time will depend fo rits inter pretation on many other factors which the physician will have to have in mind not only as to physical state of the pa tient, but also as to his emotions.