{"id":987,"date":"2019-07-23T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T10:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mymedicplus.com\/news\/?p=987"},"modified":"2021-03-31T00:41:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T19:11:14","slug":"why-the-bottom-number-on-your-blood-pressure-reading-is-important-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedicplus.com\/blog\/why-the-bottom-number-on-your-blood-pressure-reading-is-important-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Bottom Number on Your Blood Pressure Reading Is Important, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: healthline.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve been told you only have to worry about getting the top number of your blood pressure down, you may want to get a second opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what researchers in a\u00a0new study\u00a0are saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe take home message here is that when you\u2019re getting your blood pressure checked, we need to pay attention to both numbers, the systolic and the diastolic,\u201d Dr. Alexander Flint, a stroke specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and lead author of the study, told Healthline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top number, or systolic, reflects how hard your heart is working to pump blood into your arteries. The bottom number, or diastolic, indicates the pressure as your heart relaxes between beats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers concluded that both numbers were independent predictors of heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth the top and the bottom number are strongly linked to outcomes of ischemic stroke, the type of stroke where a blood clot blocks an artery in the brain, as well as hemorrhagic stroke, bleeding in the substance of the brain, and heart attacks,\u201d Flint said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study goes against previous data which shows systolic blood pressure is generally more important,\u201d Ramin Oskoui, a Washington, D.C., cardiologist, told Healthline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oskoui is also chief executive officer of Foxhall Cardiology and is affiliated with Sibley Memorial Hospital, Suburban Hospital, and Washington Hospital Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Flint says the findings turn upside down decades of commonly held beliefs about blood pressure readings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere had been quite a lot of discussion in the medical literature about this idea that systolic blood pressure was so much more important than diastolic blood pressure, based on previous studies. That perhaps we don\u2019t have to pay attention to diastolic blood pressure. And if that were true, it might present an opportunity to simplify therapy. Let\u2019s only talk about the one number,\u201d Flint explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere the data are telling us that if we were to ignore the diastolic blood pressure, that would be to the detriment of our patient\u2019s care,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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