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Ideally, everyone should, according to Dr. Mary Branch, a cardiologist at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina. "Blood pressure is a good overall measure of health, so really anyone can," Branch said. She added that some people may feel blood pressure is only something to worry about when you're older but it's important to establish a baseline when you're younger, along with other basic health metrics like A1C (an average blood sugar metric that screens for diabetes) and lipids (insight into cholesterol). While anyone who's been advised to track blood pressure regularly should do so, it's

Blood pressure is read with two numbers: systolic (the top number, which tells you the pressure your arteries are under with each heart beat) and diastolic (the bottom number, which indicates how much pressure your arteries are under between beats). Only a doctor can diagnose hypertension or chronically high blood pressure, but monitoring at home can clue you in that measurements may be higher than normal and cue you to reach out to a doctor, who can help you get to the bottom of it or manage your heart health. (It's important to note that any blood pressure reading above 180 systolic — top nu