what is blood pressure?
In: Biology
Gravity is constantly pulling your blood down. In order to keep the blood flowing against gravity and circulating in your body, your heart and blood vessels have to squeeze the blood a little. That bit of pressure ensures each beat of the heart can push enough blood up to the brain against gravity.
When we measure blood pressure we get 2 numbers. The top number is the pressure of your blood when your heart squeezes it to circulate. The bottom number is the pressure of your blood between squeezes.
Blood pressure is… the pressure of blood. Sort of exactly what it says on the tin.
Our bodies have a heart that pumps blood around our bodies in a series of surges. It is important to know both the base pressure of blood within the circulatory system and pressure as it surges when the heart contracts on a heartbeat. Those pressures are measured in millimeters of mercury.
The way that your cells get the oxygen and nutrients they need to survive is through oxygenated blood. Your body is full of arteries, veins, and smaller blood vessels. Your heart contracts 50-200 times per minute to pump oxygenated blood throughout your circulatory system.
Your blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in your arteries. The higher number is the systolic pressure, and that’s how much pressure there is while your heart is pumping. The lower number is the diastolic pressure, and that’s how much pressure there is between beats.
Downvoting people who are trying to educate themselves is atrocious. Whoever did that should be ashamed of themselves.
It is the amount of force your blood exerts against the walls of your blood vessels when your heart is pumping, as well as the amount of force exerted between those heartbeats. That’s why there are two numbers. The higher number is when the heart beats, pumping your blood through. The lower number is the force exerted against your blood vessels between pumps. High blood pressure can be a sign of arterial sclerosis as well as a precursor to heart disease and stroke.
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