What is Hypertension. In medical terms today, the proper way to say high blood pressure is hypertension. Blood flows through the body through vessels and when these vessels get clogged for one reason or another, the heart is made to pump a lot harder in order to make sure that the blood does get through.

Hypertension is dangerous to the body because it could lead to much more serious complications.  There are many things that can contribute to high blood pressure such as stress, depression, being over-weight, smoking, lack of physical activity, too much salt in the body, age, your family genetics, too much alcohol, family history of high blood pressure, adrenal disease, and chronic kidney disease. In short, the list goes on.

What is hypertension? What are the symptoms?

Most people don't visit the doctor unless they have a health concern. They usually go to the doctor for some other reason and this is when the high blood pressure is discovered. But there are symptoms to look out for. Usual symptoms of high blood pressure do include headaches that  occur especially in the morning when you are getting out of bed, having vision problems, having difficulty breathing, chest pain, and feeling tired all of the time. If you are asking questions about hypertension because you want to know if you are susceptible to it, then you should know that anyone can get high blood pressure. There are several groups of people that seem to get it more than others and these groups include people who have members of their family with a history of high blood pressure, smokers, African American people, pregnant women, women who take birth control pills, people that are older than 35, people who are overweight and not active, and people who eat too many fatty foods with a lot of salt in their diets.

A normal blood pressure reading should be around 120/80. Prehypertension is between 120/80 and 139/89. Stage one hypertension is between 140/90 and 159/99. Stage two hypertension and the most dangerous stage is 160 and above for systolic and 100 and above for diastolic.

If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure you should not ignore it. It is possible to remedy the situation, usually with a change in lifestyle. But failure to take your doctors advice on reducing it could lead to serious health complication in the future.