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.

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.

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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 cardiovascular health.

Doctors typically watch for high pulse pressure, which signifies stiff blood vessels, although it’s not been widely used to diagnose health problems, said Dr. Charles Hong, the chair of medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.