Meigs Health Matters… Understanding blood pressure
senior portraits, professional portrait
As your heart beats, it pumps blood throughout the body. The blood serves as a transport vessel as it carries oxygen, nutrients and medications to areas of demand. The blood also transports carbon dioxide and waste products to areas of excretion.
The amount of pressure the blood exerts onto the walls of the vessels is called blood pressure. Blood pressure typically is represented with two numbers, for example, you may see a blood pressure reading of 120/80 mmHg in humans. A fun fact is that a giraffe blood pressure can reach 300/180mmHg, a pressure needed to pump blood all the way from the heart to the brain.