High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

Do you have high blood pressure?

Is your blood pressure too high? What causes high blood pressure? How do you treat high blood pressure? How do you know if you have high blood pressure?

The answers to these questions can be found in this comprehensive guide to high blood pressure. This guide is here to help you understand more about this very common condition and what can be done to treat it.

The information presented on this site is aimed at people who think they might have high blood pressure as well as those who have already been diagnosed with this condition. If you are the partner, relative or friend of someone who has high blood pressure then we hope that you find this site helpful and informative.

This guide will inform you about the causes, symptoms and effects of high blood pressure. It discusses the various methods GP’s use to diagnose high blood pressure and methods to treat it. It also looks at ways of preventing high blood pressure. This guide is arranged as follows:

• Blood pressure
• High blood pressure
• Health risks of high blood pressure
• Diagnosing high blood pressure
• Women and high blood pressure
• Children and high blood pressure
• Treating high blood pressure
• Preventing high blood pressure
• High blood pressure FAQs
• Glossary

Facts about high blood pressure

High blood pressure affects both men and women and the risk increases with age. Half of people aged 75 and over have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a major problem in the West which affects millions of people.

Around 6 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

(Source: Blood Pressure Association: Blood pressure news:

26.01.2009) This figure is continuing to rise. Around 5.7 million people in the UK have undiagnosed high blood pressure. (Source: Blood Pressure Association: Blood pressure news:

26.01.2009) But the good news is that this figure is falling as GPs are better able to diagnose and treat high blood pressure.

Once high blood pressure has been diagnosed then a suitable course of treatment can be recommended. This usually includes changes to your lifestyle such as a healthy diet and exercise.

High blood pressure: the silent killer

You may be one of many people who do not realise that they have high blood pressure as it does not always show any symptoms. Many people who have undiagnosed high blood pressure continue to live their lives as normal, completely unaware of the dangers of this condition.

What are these dangers?

Heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, diabetes...

High blood pressure is a major contributor to heart attacks and strokes which are two of the main causes of death in the UK.

But in many cases this can be prevented. Your lifestyle has a significant impact upon your blood pressure which is discussed in greater detail in this guide. Having your blood pressure checked on a regular basis will also help.

A thorough overview of high blood pressure

This easy to understand guide discusses everything you ever wanted to know about high blood pressure. It includes an in-depth look at what high blood pressure is, the risks to your health and how it is diagnosed and treated.

There are additional risks for women. Women can also have high blood pressure for much the same reasons as men. But there are a few ‘female specific’ factors such as oral contraceptives, pregnancy and menopause which are all discussed in this guide.

Children too can get high blood pressure. This may seem strange but it is possible for children to develop this condition which occurs for the same reasons as for adults. This includes being overweight, a poor diet and a lack of exercise. These and other factors are discussed within this guide.

But prevention is better than cure. High blood pressure along with many other conditions is largely caused by our lifestyles and making a few changes to this can prevent this chronic condition.

So in response to this we have included a ‘top ten tips’on preventing high blood pressure. These are often simple to do but will pay dividends in the long term. These can be found further on in this guide.

If at the end of this guide you still have a few questions to ask then visit our FAQS section. This contains a list of the most popular questions people ask about high blood pressure.

This is a guide about high blood pressure but to start with we have included a short section about what blood pressure is and does and what those all important readings mean.

included here is a broad overview of high blood pressure otherwise known as hypertension, and drug treatments available to treat it.