Diastolic High Blood Pressure

The lower value is high. The diastolic pressure — that value medicine measures when the heart rests between two beats. The filling phase. The moment in which the blood flows back, in which the chambers fill again with life. The moment of relaxation.

And that is precisely where the pressure finds no end.

This is the quiet side of high blood pressure. Not the loud side, not the hammering under exertion — but the underlying tone that remains. At night too. On Sunday mornings too. Even when you are lying on the sofa and should really be coming to rest. Your system can no longer find its way back. The bow that draws taut when you are challenged no longer springs back to its resting position.