Many people believe that blood pressure readings are the same thing as heart rates. However, even if heart rates and blood pressure are related, they are entirely different. Simply put, everyone has a hear rate, which is needed to have a blood pressure. However, the value of your heart rate does not indicate what your blood pressure is.

Blood pressure refers to the blood force against your artery walls, while heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute. When a doctor gets your blood pressure, he would give you a reading that consists of two numbers - systolic pressure (first number) and the diastolic pressure (second number). Although the first value would usually be higher, the readings would vary for each person. The systolic pressure is the amount of pressure put on your arteries whenever the heart beats, while diastolic pressure is the amount of pressure put on the artery walls in between heartbeats. The systolic value is always written on top of the diastolic value; as such, if you have a systolic pressure of 120 mm and a diastolic pressure of 80 mm, your doctor would say you have a blood pressure of 120 over 80, or simply written down as 120/80. Adults have a healthy blood pressure if their reading is less than 120 systolic and 80 diastolic.

The relationship of your blood pressure and heart rate becomes evident when your heart stops beating because by this time, your blood pressure would be equivalent to zero. Although this statement is entirely true, it doesn't mean that when your heart rate goes up that your blood pressure would start to increase at the same rate of your heart rate. Increased heart rate results in expansion of your blood vessels to allow more blood to flow without exerting too much effort, so if your exercise, your heart rate may shoot up, but your blood pressure may remain the same or go up just a bit. This goes to show hat even if blood pressure and heart rate is related in some way, they are not and should not be considered as the same thing.

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