By the way, doctor: Is the difference between the two blood pressure numbers important?
Diastolic pressure measures the force exerted by blood against vessel walls when the heart is relaxing between beats — that's why it's the lower of the two blood pressure numbers. With age, our arteries get a little stiff. As a result, they don't stretch out as much every time the heart beats, so more blood gets pushed right on through the larger vessels into smaller ones. Because there's less blood in the large arteries between heartbeats, diastolic pressure tends to decrease.
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