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You are here: Home / Your Body / Why Does a Doctor Take Your Blood Pressure?

Why Does a Doctor Take Your Blood Pressure?

June 10, 2020 by Karen Hill

Water rushing through a hose exerts pressure on the hose, and in the same way, blood surging through your blood vessels exerts pressure on the vessels.

It’s important for a doctor to know your blood pressure, because this tells him the strength of your heart, the condition of your arteries, and other important things about your health.

When a doctor takes your blood pressure, he attaches a rubber cuff to your arm, just above the elbow. This cuff is like an empty balloon, and can be filled with air. The doctor pumps up the cuff until it’s so tight that it stops the flow of blood through the artery in your arm. Then he lets the air out of the cuff, and the first rush of blood through the artery is “read” by a tube containing mercury. This mercury tube shows the doctor your blood pressure “reading.”

This first, or maximum, reading tells the doctor your blood pressure when your heart is pumping. The second, or minimum, reading is then taken to show your blood pressure when your heart is in its resting stage. So your blood pressure reading always consists of two numbers, called the ‘maximum/minimum blood pressure.”

The average blood pressure reading of a healthy adult is 120/80. But blood pressure readings can vary in the same person at different times.

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  • Who Discovered Air Pressure and that the Atmosphere has weight and presses down on us?
  • Who Discovered Blood Plasma and How does separating red blood cells and plasma extended the shelf life?
  • Who Discovered Blood Types and How Humans have different types of blood that are not all compatible?
  • Who Discovered that the absolute volume and pressure of a gas are inversely proportional at a constant temperature?
  • Who Invented the First Barometer and Why Is Air Pressure Measured in Inches?
  • Who Discovered how the Human Circulatory System works and When?

Filed Under: Your Body

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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