Blood Pressure Basics: What Your Numbers Really Mean
Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most important indicators of your overall health, but it’s also one that many people don’t fully understand. Simply put, blood pressure measures the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps. It is expressed with two numbers: the systolic pressure (the top number), which measures the pressure when your heart beats, and the diastolic pressure (the bottom number), which measures the pressure when your heart is at rest between beats. Let’s talk more about it and how it affects your health.