“It is the force the heart uses to pump the blood out.” - Nurse Associate

“Blood pressure is how much stress and strain there is on your blood vessels, in your body, as your blood is flowing around. So, it's to do with how much pressure or stress there is due to your heart pumping and pushing blood around your body.”

- General Practitioner

A device called a blood pressure monitor is used to measure your blood pressure.

“It is where you wear a cuff or sleeve around the upper arm. The way it works is it pumps up and what it is measuring is two numbers - a top number and a bottom number. The bottom number is the pressure that is always there and the higher number is the pressure it goes up to.” 

- General Practitioner

“I prefer for you to be sitting for at least 5 minutes before I take your blood pressure. I will ask you to put your feet flat on the floor and to try to relax. I usually take measurements 3 times.” 

- Nurse Associate

All adults over 40 years old are advised to have their blood pressure checked at least every 5 years in an appointment called an NHS Health Check.

“A lot of people have routine checks including measuring blood pressure.  All patients over the age of 40 should have a health check every 5 years, which we call an NHS Health Check.”

 - General Practitioner

“Blood pressure in itself is not always very helpful. It’s helpful to look at it with other measurements. For example, height, weight, smoking, sugar intake and cholesterol. We look at the whole thing basically. That's usually how we check it and if someone's blood pressure is high we try and arrange some follow up, keep an eye on it, monitor it and keep checking it so that it comes down.”

 - General Practitioner