We all hear a lot about blood pressure, but depending on how often you take a trip to your doctor’s, you might not know what yours is.
The term refers to “the strength with which your blood pushes on the sides of your arteries as it’s pumped around your body,” the NHS says (how bad is it that I didn’t know that?).
Low blood pressure isn’t usually a concern, though it can make some of us feel dizzy and sometimes causes fainting.
But high blood pressure “can increase your risk of developing serious problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, if it’s not treated.”
You can get your blood pressure checked using a blood pressure machine (if you’re over 40, you can get this done for free in participating pharmacies).
Once you get those numbers you might be wondering what’s normal for your age ― and according to the Heart Research Institute, “normal blood pressure varies from person to person” and by age and gender.
The average blood pressure for each group is as follows, though a “healthy” range for adults remains between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg:
1) Newborns up to 1 month
- Systolic (top number): 60–90 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 20–60 mm Hg
2) Infants
- Systolic (top number): 87–105 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 53–66 mm Hg
3) Toddlers
- Systolic (top number): 95–105 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 53–66 mm Hg
4) Preschoolers
- Systolic (top number): 95–110 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 56–70 mm Hg
5) School-aged children
- Systolic (top number): 97–112 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 57–71 mm Hg
6) Adolescents
- Systolic (top number): 112–128 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 66–80 mm Hg
7) 18–39 years
- Women: 110/68 mm Hg
- Men: 119/70 mm Hg
8) 40–59 years
- Women: 122/74 mm Hg
- Men: 124/77 mm Hg
9) 60+ years
- Women: 139/68 mm Hg
- Men: 133/69 mm Hg
Why does age and gender affect normal blood pressure levels?
According to the National Institute of Aging, “normal” blood pressure levels differ among different age groups because “Your body’s network of blood vessels, known as the vascular system, changes with age.”
“Arteries get stiffer, causing blood pressure to go up,” they add. That’s true even for very health and heart-conscious people.
And “Although the mechanisms responsible for the gender differences in blood pressure control are not clear, there is significant evidence that androgens, such as testosterone, play an important role in gender-associated differences in blood pressure regulation,” a research paper published by the American Heart Association (AHA) says.
The AHA wrote on a separate page that pre-menopausal women tend to have lower blood pressure than men, but added that “after menopause, however, blood pressure increases in women to levels even higher than in men.”