Eli5: Why is our blood pressure considered more accurate sitting down?

Question

I’ve never understood why doctors tell us to take our blood pressures after sitting down for a little while. Like…wouldn’t it be better to know what your BP is when you’re walking around since it changes quite a bit?

Isn’t it bad if a BP is really high at any point, even while walking?

In: Biology

Answer 1

no because the idea is to get a baseline.

so for instance, if your bp is high when you’re resting, you would know there’s an issue.

if your bp is higher after some type of exercise, then you wouldn’t know that it wasn’t from exertion or from a health issue

hope that helped.