Your blood pressure is one of the most important measurements of your health, and understanding these numbers may help you keep your blood pressure under better control.
Your blood pressure is always recorded as one number over the other. A normal blood pressure is 120/80 or lower, or as your doctor would call it, "120 over 80."
The first number is your systolic blood pressure, and the second number is your diastolic blood pressure. Here's what these mean:
- Your heart pumps blood through the arteries in your body each time it beats. Your systolic pressure is the pressure in your arteries during a heartbeat. This is like turning on a garden hose attached to a sprinkler. When the hose fills with water, the pressure inside goes up.
- Your diastolic pressure is the pressure in your arteries between heartbeats. If you turned off the faucet for a moment, the garden hose would still contain water, but the pressure would be less.
One way that health care providers can check your blood pressure is to wrap an inflatable cuff around your arm, then fill it with air. While letting air slowly escape from the cuff, the provider listens to your pulse through a stethoscope placed on your inner forearm. When the provider hears your pulse for the first time, the number on the gauge attached to the cuff will be your systolic pressure. As the pressure in the cuff drops further, the reading that shows on the gauge when the provider can no longer hear your pulse will be your diastolic pressure.
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