Factors That Affect Your Blood Pressure

Fluid systems in the body are notorious for the high level of complexity in their physics. The circulatory system is no different, and it is because of this that there are so many different factors that could affect a person’s blood pressure. The rate the heart pumps to the viscosity of the blood itself, blood pressure has influences from multiple factors in the body. These factors may, in turn, be influenced by outside factors such as diet, exercise, disease, or drugs. It is because of this that blood pressure has an even greater number of indirect influences.

Let’s start by discussing probably the most influential factor associated with blood pressure: the rate of pumping, more commonly referred to as the heart rate. The average heart rate for a healthy human being runs between 70 and 75 beats per minute. The higher the heart rate is, the higher the blood pressure. Another physical factor related to blood pressure is the blood volume of the body. The more blood there is in the body, the higher the rate of blood return to the heart and the higher the blood pressure. There is a correlation between salt intake and blood volume in many people, though the amount to which it raises blood pressure varies.

Resistance and viscosity are two other major influencing factors in blood pressure. Resistance here relates to the size of blood vessels as well as the smoothness of these vessels. There are things in the body that affect the size of blood vessels. Some make them thinner, which increases blood pressure, while others do the opposite. Fatty acids are responsible for the smoothness of blood vessels, because the more that is deposited on the walls, the less resistance there is. Viscosity, on the other hand, is the thickness of the blood flowing through the body. The thicker the blood that’s pumping through a body’s veins, the higher the blood pressure will be. Certain illnesses affect the viscosity of blood, as well as the level of sugars in the blood.

While thus far high blood pressure has been the effect of these factors, there are certainly ones that influence low blood pressure as well. Some causes of low blood pressure include sepsis, hemorrhaging, certain toxins, and hormonal abnormalities. On a lighter note, simply sitting and standing could lower blood pressure as well, though the factors that influence low blood pressure are usually more severe.

Some Questions On Heart Rate Answered

What is heart rate? Heart rate (HR) is an indicator of the
heart's work and is calculated as number of heart
contractions (beats) in one minute (beats per minute - bpm).
Individual heart rate is very much influenced by physical
fitness of the person, genetics, age and environment.

What is the heart rate reserve? Heart rate reserve is the
difference between the maximum heart rate and so called
resting heart rate. If your maximum heart rate is 200 beats
per minute (bpm) and your resting heart rate is 60 bpm, then
your heart rate reserve is 140 beats per minute (200 - 60).
Trained people usually have larger heart rate reserve than
those who do no sports.

What is recovery heart rate? Recovery heart rate is the
decreased heart rate measured after a period of time after the
training. For example if your heart rate immediately after
the training was 185 beats per minute (bpm) and after 2
minutes your heart rate decreased to 110 bpm, then the 110
bpm represents your recovery heart rate. Together with
maximum heart rate, recovery heart rate also helps to
determine the intensity of your training.

How does the heart rate decrease after training? The time
that the heart needs to decrease its rate to resting rate is
individual. Typically, trained people do have higher maximum
heart rates, their heart can work longer with higher heart
rates, their resting heart rate is lower than the heart rate
of an untrained individual and they need less time to reach
resting heart rate. With a semi-trained person, the heart rate
drops at least 20 beats per minute (e.g. 180 bpm during the
training, 140 bpm or less after 2 minutes).

What is resting heart rate? Resting heart rate represents
the number of heart beats in one minute while you are at rest.
The resting heart rate is best measured if you did not
perform any activity for at least 10 minutes (standing up
from the chair is considered an activity!), ideally after
waking up the natural way, without an alarm (an alarm signal
causes stress in an organism and results in an increased heart
rate) still resting on the bed.

What is maximum heart rate? Maximum heart rate represents
the highest number of heart contractions a person can bear.
As maximum heart rate can be truly measured only during a
moderated stress test under physician's supervision, you can
estimate your maximum heart rate using the following
formula: Maximum heart rate = 220 - age (in years); That
means that if your actual age is 34 years, your maximum
heart rate would be 186 bpm (220 - 34). The maximum heart
rate of a trained person is higher than the maximum heart
rate of the less fit person.

What is normal heart rate? There is nothing like average
normal heart rate. A typical resting heart rate of a medium
conditioned man is approximately 70 bpm. Genetics and mostly
physical fitness play a significant role. The resting
heart rate of a well conditioned sportsman can be as low as
40 bpm as a trained heart works more effectively.

What is a safe heart rate during training? If your heart
is healthy (means you never suffered from a heart disease or
a heart attack) the safe range would be 70-80% of your
maximum heart rate. This doesn't apply to people who are in
cardiac rehabilitation, their exercise heart rate is limited
at maximum 50-60% of their maximum heart rate.

What is the difference between Heart Rate and Heart Rate
Variability? While heart rate refers to the number of times
a heart contracts in one minute, heart rate variability
refers to the beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate.