Blood Pressure
 A certain level of blood pressure in your arteries is essential to daily living. Pressure, you see, is what propels blood through your bodies 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Without pressurization, blood couldn't overcome gravity to reach your brain.
Then you'd probably know what it would be like to be Jessica Simpson. To generate blood pressure, the human body relies on the heart as well as muscle fibers lining the vessel walls. When necessary, the brain increases blood pressure by either signaling the heart to pump faster, harder, or by directing the arteries to contract. Orthostatic HypotensionThis is exactly what happens when you get out of bed in the morning. When you stand after being horizontal for many hours, blood pressure in your head plummets while the blood pressure in your legs shoot up. Without an immediate correction in this imbalance, you'd crumple to the floor midyawn. On cue, arteries in the lower body constrict while the heart dramatically increases output. The instant result: Blood pressure rises and blood flows to your brain. Blood Pressure RegulationThe body's system to regulate blood pressure is ingenious yet one that's idiotically very easy to throw off kilter. Chow on salty foods and your body retains water in order to diulte the excess sodium, increasing your overall blood volume. Lard your butt or belly with extra fat and your heart has no choice but to work harder forcing blood into the new tissue. Clog your arteries by eating fatty foods and lazing around, and your heart will pound away every second to push blood through narrower pipes. Consume yourself with stress and worry and your brain will kick heart and arteries into a perpetual flight-or-flight mode characterized by increased cardiac output. Anything you do to get a low blood pressure is worthless if you don't adress the two biggest risk factors for hypertension: smoking and being overweight. Besides doing a number on your lungs, smoking elevates blood pressure by increasing the heart rate and constricting blood vessels. As for that jelly roll you might fondly call a belly, each pound of fat means servicing miles of new blood vessels. Drop 10 pounds and you'll knock and easy 5 points off your blood pressure, and as a result lower your risk of stroke by 42 percent.
Jim Shaw 
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