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Science

Blood Pressure

June 12, 2014

Blood pressure is what we call the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels.

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Heart contractions make blood pressure go up: the upper "systolic" value. When it relaxes, it goes down: the lower "diastolic" number. It is measured in mmHg - millimeters of mercury - because arterial pressure is most commonly measured via a sphygmomanometer, which historically used the height of a column of mercury to reflect the circulating pressure.