What is normal blood pressure?

Optimal, ideal, excellent, healthy: isn't that how we'd all love our blood pressure to be? Normal, healthy blood pressure is one of the most important measurements for long-term health and can help prevent or reduce many health problems.

This guide will help explain optimal blood pressure numbers, some factors that can influence normal results, and ways to keep readings in that ideal, healthy range.

1. What is blood pressure?

To understand normal or healthy blood pressure, it helps to understand blood pressure itself.

When our heart contracts - pumps or beats - it pushes blood out of the ...