How do they check blood pressure?
To measure your blood pressure, your doctor or more likely a nurse or other healthcare professional will place a rubber cuff around your upper arm. He or she will then pump air into the cuff. When the cuff is fully inflated, it will compress a large artery in your arm to momentarily stop the blood flow. The person taking your blood pressure will then slowly release air from the cuff and listen with a stethoscope placed on the compressed artery. When your blood begins to flow again, it will make a sound audible through the stethoscope. The sound will continue until the pressure in your artery exceeds the pressure in the cuff. The nurse will check a gauge and note when he or she first hears the noise (this is the systolic reading) and when the noise stops (this is the diastolic reading). What is a healthy blood pressure? According to the American Heart Association, a healthy blood pressure is less than 120/80 mm Hg. However, some physicians consider the ideal reading to be 115/75 mm Hg.
