Hypertension or High Blood Pressure

The heart pumps blood around the body through the blood vessels. Blood pressure is the amount of force exerted on the artery walls by the pumping blood. High blood pressure (hypertension) means that your blood is pumping with more force than normal through your arteries. The added stress on the arteries can accelerate the silting of arteries with fatty plaques (atherosclerosis). Other risk factors for atherosclerosis include cigarette smoking and high blood cholesterol. Atherosclerosis contributes to many illnesses, such as heart attack and stroke. Hypertension is a common disorder of the circulatory system, affecting around one in seven adult Australians.

Hypertension usually produces no symptoms. This means most people don’t even realise they have it. Experts recommend that everyone should have their blood pressure checked regularly.