High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. It is a common condition that affects your arteries.

When you have high blood pressure, the force of blood pushing through your blood vessels and against your artery walls is too high. This can put strain on your heart because it makes your heart work harder in order to pump blood.

If you are diagnosed with this condition, you may need to make lifestyle changes or take medicine. If left untreated it could increase your risk of developing serious health problems.

There are two main types of high blood pressure. Primary hypertension has no known cause and develops gradually over time. Secondary hypertension is caused by an underlying condition, medicines, consuming too much alcohol or illegal drugs. It begins suddenly and usually causes higher blood pressure than primary hypertension.

This condition can be quickly diagnosed by taking a simple reading with a device called a sphygmomanometer. This provides two numbers representing the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats and when it is at rest.

A reading of 130/80 and over is considered high. High blood pressure is normal for some people, such as athletes, who will typically also have a low pulse.

If you have high blood pressure, we may recommend regular readings and further tests such as a cholesterol screening, ultrasound, or electrocardiogram.

We may also suggest that you wear a 24-hour blood pressure (BP) monitor so that we can check your blood pressure changes over a longer period.

Some risk factors, like your age, race, or family history, can’t be avoided. However, there are steps you can take to lower your risk, including:

• Adding fruit and vegetables to your diet, making it more ‘heart healthy’.
• Reduce the amount of salt in your food.
• Avoid sugary, processed food and drinks.
• Reduce your weight towards an optimal level.
• Have your blood pressure monitored regularly so you are alerted to high blood pressure earlier, and can make necessary changes.