Your Blood Pressure Reading Contains a Hidden Number. Here’s Why It Matters

Your blood pressure reading contains a hidden number. Here’s why it matters

You’re likely familiar with getting your blood pressure taken, the cuff squeezing your arm before generating two numbers. Yet this vital sign contains a third, lesser-known number that matters for brain and heart health: pulse pressure. While blood pressure measures how much pressure the blood puts on the arteries while the heart is beating and at rest, pulse pressure provides a window into how flexible and elastic the arteries are, a sign of ca…

Your blood pressure reading contains a hidden number — and here’s why it matters

You’re likely familiar with getting your blood pressure taken, the cuff squeezing your arm before generating two numbers.