I'm 20 years of age, and I just took my blood pressure. It was 145/79. What is the normal blood pressure for someone my age? I'm pretty sure it is high since I've been gaining weight for the last year.

[removed]

You didn't say when you had last eaten or exercised before taking bp. Also, your emotions affect your bp. If you were worried beforehand that can have a dramatic affect on it.

[removed]
:wave:

And don't use the in-store bp monitors as your primary measuring tool! :)

Use an at home monitor (not the wrist kind either). Make sure you've been fairly resting for about 10 minutes and then take it. The key is to take averages over a period of time.

But yeah if your upper (systolic) is consistently above 135 it's time for a discussion with your doctor. 145 isn't a crisis, but you do need to talk with your doctor on how to reduce it. Diet and exercise come first. Try that for a while to see if that normalizes things.

Check back here for advice on what to do if you hit the "I need medication" stage. We have lots of advice on how to deal with over-zealous doctors.

As with Cholestreol level, BP readings are different for each and everyone of us.
But as a guide, which like Cholesterol levels, keep dwindling downwards and downwards, because to the manufacturers of these chemicals, we are all the same, the top average is 140/90.

Medication should only be approved following either the wearing of a twenty four hour BP recording monitor, or several visits to a Doctor and tested when one has been at a totally relaxed state for thirty minutes and the average results are consistently higher than the above values.

zapp,
A single reading has no meaning.
Borrow wsomeone's BP tester and test yourself at home, sitting relaxed for 30 days. Take an average.
At age 20, something over 130/85 should begin to concern you becasue it will creep up with age.

Nothing lowers BP better than weight loss, so you know your first avenue of attack.;)