Fun Facts

Blood pressure, or simply referred to as BP, is nothing but the level of pressure that is exerted by the blood while traveling across the artery walls in the body. Six out of every ten people are said to have been affected by this problem in life. A higher blood pressure, which does not indicate any symptoms in the early stages, if left uncontrolled, might lead to hyper tension and also to cardiac related diseases.

Before dwelling more about the disease and its repercussions, let us try to understand what the measurements or reading of the BP actually mean.

If you are suffering from fever and visit a doctor, he will place a thermometer in your mouth and find out the reading – a single number such as 100 Deg. – of your temperature level. But if you visit a doctor to check the BP level, he will give two numbers – something like 120/80 or 140/90.

What these two numbers mean and what does it convey to you as well as to the doctor?

The blood does not flow through the body in a steady manner. It often flows in spurts – sudden boost for a while and then resting or pausing for a while. Hence the reading of blood pressure is measured in two numbers. The higher number is first recorded and the second number will be relatively lesser than the first number – for e.g., 130/90.

The higher number or the first number implies the systolic pressure; and the second one implies the diastolic pressure.

Systolic pressure refers to the peak force that is exerted on the blood for pumping a small amount of blood to the circulation. While pumping the blood, the heart contracts and exerts the force. The second number in the reading, or the diastolic pressure, measures the pressure exerted on the blood when the heart is pausing or taking rest between the beats.

What is the unit of measurement we use in recording the readings of both the systolic and diastolic pressures?

The unit of measurement for blood pressure is millimeters of mercury. In other words, the reading indicates how high the pressure of the blood can move a column of mercury in an evacuated tube.

The doctor uses the stethoscope and also sphygmomanometer to take the reading of the blood pressure. Before taking the reading, he temporarily stops the flow of flood by tightening the cuff in the hand, and applies some pressure. When the pressure is released, he listens to the sounds that provide an indication of the systolic and diastolic pressures.

The two numbers indicate the amount of pressure of the blood both in movement as well as in rest, thus providing an indication to the doctor and even to you by looking at the numbers.

The ideal number for blood pressure reading is 120 for systolic pressure and 80 for diastolic pressure. This reading indicates that the pressure levels are normal enough and functioning in proper condition.

If the reading exceeds this ideal numbers, then you should take additional care to keep it around this ideal number. A higher reading would imply that you can contract hyper-tension and undiagnosed hyper-tension or higher levels of hyper-tension might lead to serious heart diseases and even prove fatal.

Hope this article helped you just understand what the BP readings imply or tell you about the condition of your heart that pumps the blood to the arteries.

Health blood pressure, blood pressure measurements

Many of you must have heard about the “Lady with the Lamp” – Florence Nightingale. If I were to say that Florence Nightingale is the apt synonym for “Nursing”, it is not an exaggeration.

It is this lady, born in a rich family in the UK, who laid the foundation steps for the noble profession of nursing and got fame only for her pioneering service, especially to the wounded soldiers at the camps during the Crimean War.

What is nursing?

It is a profession in the health-care industry, where the primary focus of a nurse would be to take care of the patients and render all possible assistance such that the patients recover from the ailments and return back to optimal health such that they can maintain themselves with no further external assistance.

With the increasing need for specialized assistance, the definition of nursing has been extended to include not just individual patients, but also the families and the communities at large.

As a nurse, it is not necessary that you should work only in a hospital or a clinic. Specialized nursing services for old people, infants, or people with physical challenges, either at their homes or in dedicated centers also come under the profession of nursing.

As a nurse, it is immaterial whether you are catering to the needs of a single patient, family or a community. However, the underlying concept is that of service and assistance till the patient gets back to normalcy.

Before dwelling further into the aspects of Nursing as a profession, one should understand an important point. Just as a mother is to an infant and a teacher is to the child, Nurse is to a patient. This must be borne in mind, when you are aspiring to take up this noble profession.

This is one reason why the nursing profession is best suited for the women than the men, because the qualities of compassion, care and understanding will be relatively more among the service-minded women in the nursing industry, though men are also equally capable of taking up the profession of nursing.

The profession of nursing has been recognized world wide and there is huge and perennial requirement for people in the nursing industry. Though the motive is service to the needy and suffering patients, the payment is also relatively better and depending upon the place and the patients one needs to look after or service for, one can expect a decent salary ranging from a minimum of $30,000 per year and more.

As a certified nurse, you need to work under the guidance of a registered nurse, who is equivalent to a semi-qualified doctor, and follow his or her instructions in connection with the services for the patient.

Nursing, though a profession with a decent salary, should be taken up with an extra bit of passion and humility as the motto is Service to the patients.

Health cna, cna career, cna careers, cna certification, cna classes, cna healtcare, cna jobs, cna salary, healthcare profession, lvn, nurse career, nursing, phl

Do you feel that your bones are too weak and are prone to fractures even if little or no pressure is applied on your bones?

If the answer is yes, then you are one of those patients suffering from a disease called Osteoporosis.

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become weak and also porous. Faster than expected break-down of cells in the bones and inability or delay in replacing the broken cells of the existing bones or formation of new bones is the primary reason for osteoporosis to affect you.

Many people might not be aware that the bones in our body are remodeling themselves constantly throughout our life. A process of resorption takes place in our bones wherein some of the bone cells that break down or resorbed and new bones are formed replacing the old bones that could not be resorbed.

If there is any breakdown in this process, that is, if some of the bone cells break down and are not replaced by resorbtion or formation of new cells, then the bones become weak and porous and lead to the problem of osteoporosis.

What causes Osteoporosis?

The primary reason for bone weakness or Osteoporosis is lack of hormones – estrogen for women and androgen for men, in the body. In addition to the lack of hormones, deficiency or inadequate intake of Vitamin D and calcium leads to weakness in the body and ultimately lead to Osteoporosis.

It is in the early years, especially in the childhood, that the bones grow, not only in length but also in density. In early adolescence, the growth of the bones in length is finished, that is between the ages 11 to 14, the bones grow in length and after that there is not much growth for bones lengthwise. Between the ages 14 and 20, the bones build density and it is found that peak bone mass is achieved by the age of 20. As soon as a person, either a girl or a boy, achieves the peak bone mass or density, then there is no possibility of improving upon the same.

Preventing osteoporosis

Osteoporosis generally affect a person in the later part of life – may be after 50 years. Women are more prone to contract this disease, especially after the cycle of menopause ends, but, even men are also prone to this disease if not properly taken care of.

It is always better to prevent the disease from affecting you, than taking recourse for medication at a later date.

One should be aware of the importance of the bones and their importance in our body and life right from the early stages and should take adequate steps to keep the bones in a fit and healthy condition right from the early days.

In other words, one can totally avoid the disease of Osteoporosis if he or she takes adequate care of his or her bones in early years.

One way to keep the bones fit and healthy is to do some physical exercises on a daily basis. If those exercises involve some amount of weight-bearing, then it would be better. In addition to exercises to the body that keeps your bones and muscles in fit condition, you should consume adequate quantities of Vitamin D, calcium and phosphorous.

Calcium is the building blocks for bones and phosphorous assists in the formation of the bones. Milk, dairy products, dark green leafy vegetables, soy and rice beverages are found to be rich sources of calcium and phosphorous. One should include these items in your daily intake for ensuring strength to your bones.

According to medical experts, a person aged above 50 years should consume 1,200 mg of calcium per day, a person aged between 19 and 50 should consume about 1,000 mg of calcium and for children aged between 9 and 18, the prescribed calcium intake should be about 1,300 mg.

By consuming calcium and Vitamin D in good amount and also ensuring that you do some sort of exercises regularly throughout your early days of life, you can be rest assured that the problem of Osteoporosis will not contact you.

Health Osteoporosis, Osteoporosis causes, Osteoporosis preventive measures, Osteoporosis remedy