The Blood Pressure Guide
Everything you need to know for a healthy blood pressure.
Updated 10 November 2026. 9 guides, 10 questions and 16 number pages, drawn from 131 published sources.
What do your two numbers mean?
Type yours to see where they sit, what sets the category and what to do next.
Stage 1 hypertensionSystolic 130 to 139 or diastolic 80 to 89. High blood pressure. Most people start with lifestyle changes. Medication comes up if it stays there after 3 to 6 months, or sooner if your overall risk is high.
Take a week of home measurements. If the average stays here, start a lifestyle plan and talk to your doctor about your overall risk.
More about these two numbers
The gap between them (pulse pressure) is 46. The average pressure across a beat (mean arterial pressure) is about 97.
If you are pregnant and past 20 weeks, 140/90 or higher needs a call to your care team, and 160/110 or higher needs care the same day.
One measurement decides little. Work out your home average. General information, not a diagnosis.
Start here
The four things people ask first.
What do my numbers mean?
Type the two numbers from any cuff and see your category, what sets it and what to do next.
How do I lower it?
What lowers blood pressure, ranked by size. Each lever with its mmHg, time until it shows, confidence and who it does not apply to, then a plan you can test at home.
How do I measure at home?
The setup, how many points each mistake adds, and the seven-day method from the US guidelines, so your home number is one a doctor can use.
Which monitor should I buy?
Buy an upper-arm cuff from a validated list, in the right size. Models by budget with exact numbers, where validation was stated, and how to keep a record.
Everything in this guide
9 guides, 10 questions, 16 number pages and four tools.
What to do
Why it happens
Understand it
Questions
- Can a smartwatch measure blood pressure?
- Does alcohol raise blood pressure?
- Does caffeine raise blood pressure?
- How do you lower diastolic blood pressure?
- How fast can you lower blood pressure?
- What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?
- What blood pressure is too low?
- What is a good blood pressure?
- When is blood pressure an emergency?
- Why is my blood pressure high in the morning?
Look up a number
What each common pair means.
