Explainer

Blood pressure

Two numbers, measured in millimetres of mercury. The top is the push when your heart beats. The bottom is the pressure that stays between beats.

Why it matters

Blood pressure is one of the clearest windows into how your metabolism is doing. It sits alongside fasting glucose and triglycerides as a read on cardiometabolic health, and it tends to move with them.

Lustig's work ties rising pressure to what you eat, fructose in particular. Too much of it drives up blood pressure and feeds the wider picture of metabolic syndrome. So a number creeping upward is rarely just about the heart. It is a signal about the whole system.

Where your reading sits

Your category is set by whichever number is higher. Read from the bottom up.

High, stage 2
sys140 or abovedia90 or above

Sustained pressure at this level carries real cardiovascular risk. Speak to a clinician.

High, stage 1
sys130 to 139dia80 to 89

Lustig flags readings above 135/85 as tracking closely with high fructose intake.

Elevated
sys120 to 129diabelow 80

The early drift upward. No symptoms yet, but the direction matters.

Optimal
sysbelow 120diabelow 80

Where you want to sit. Lustig treats this as the metabolic target.

Low
sysbelow 90diabelow 60

Can leave you dizzy or faint. Worth a mention to your clinician if it is a pattern.

Check a reading

Enter both numbers to light up your band.

Waiting for both numbers.

The metabolic line

Lustig singles out a threshold worth watching: readings that stay above 135/85 track closely with high fructose intake and longer-term cardiovascular risk. It sits inside the high zone here, an early tell rather than a verdict.

This page is for understanding, not diagnosis. One reading is a snapshot, not a trend. For anything that concerns you, see a clinician.

Track your blood pressure with BioMetRx

BioMetRx is a blood pressure tracker built for the whole metabolic picture. Log readings with a guided three-reading flow, watch your 7- and 30-day averages, and see MAP and pulse pressure trend alongside glucose, weight and lab markers — so a number creeping upward is read as the systemic signal it is, not an isolated snapshot.

Track the whole picture, not fragments

BioMetRx brings your metabolic markers into one dashboard. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment it's live.

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