What Is High Blood Pressure?

What is high blood pressure? High blood pressure (also known as hypertension) occurs when the pressure in the blood vessels is too high. An average blood pressure reading of more than 140/90 is considered indicative of high blood pressure. Chronic high blood pressure can lead to health problems, such as congestive heart failure, vision problems, and kidney failure.

 

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- An Overview

Blood pressure is the amount of force (pressure) that blood exerts on the walls of the blood vessels as it passes through them. As blood is pumped from your heart into your blood vessels, enough pressure is created to send it to all other parts of your body. As blood vessels travel away from the heart, they branch off and gradually get smaller, just like the branches of a tree. One branch may go to the brain while another may go to your kidneys. Blood pressure keeps the blood flowing through all these branches so that your body's cells get the oxygen and nutrients they need and waste matter can be removed.
 
As you might have guessed, high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) develops when the pressure within your blood vessels is too high. About 1 out of every 3 American adults -- nearly 65 million people -- has high blood pressure.
 
If a person is diagnosed with high blood pressure, it doesn't mean that he or she is "too nervous," overanxious, or obsessive. This is a popular myth. High blood pressure is not nervous tension. In fact, many people who are perfectly calm have high blood pressure.
 

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- Types of High Blood Pressure

There are a number of different categories of high blood pressure.
 Most people have what is known as essential hypertension or primary hypertension. This is high blood pressure where the cause is not known. Other types of high blood pressure include:
 
There are several types of high blood pressure in pregnancy. These types include:
 
  • Preeclampsia (also known as pregnancy-induced hypertension, toxemia of pregnancy, or acute hypertensive disease of pregnancy)
  • Eclampsia
  • Chronic hypertension
  • Chronic hypertension with preeclampsia
  • Late hypertension (also called gestational hypertension).
     

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- Know the Risk Factors

While, for most people, there is no known cause of high blood pressure, there are factors that increase a person's chance of developing the disease. These are known as high blood pressure risk factors. Unfortunately, some of these high blood pressure risk factors cannot be controlled, such as:
 
  • Being African American
  • Having a family history of high blood pressure
  • Being a male over the age of 45 or a female over the age of 55.
     
However, there are a number of high blood pressure risk factors that can be controlled, including:
 
  • Being overweight or obese
  • Being physically inactive
  • High salt and sodium intake
  • Low potassium intake (due to not eating enough fruits and vegetables)
  • Excessive alcohol consumption
  • Having diabetes
  • Having prehypertension (that is, blood pressure in the 120-139/80-89 mmHg range).
     

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- Testing Methods

A blood pressure test involves using either a sphygmomanometer or blood pressure machine to measure the blood pressure. Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and recorded as two numbers (systolic pressure "over" diastolic pressure). For example, the doctor or nurse might say "130 over 80" as a blood pressure reading. This is written as 130/80. Many people define normal blood pressure as an average reading of 120/80 or below.
 
Both numbers in a blood pressure reading are important. As we grow older, systolic blood pressure is especially important.
 

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- Making a Diagnosis

High blood pressure can only be diagnosed after taking several readings to find your average blood pressure. To determine your average blood pressure, your blood pressure needs to be taken two or more times, and each reading must be from a different day. If the average of these blood pressure readings is more than 140/90, you have high blood pressure.
 

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- How It Affect the Body

The body structures that chronic high blood pressure affects most include the:
 
  • Heart
  • Brain
  • Kidneys
  • Eyes
  • Blood vessels.
     
Because of the effects of high blood pressure on these organs, a person who has had high blood pressure for a long time (known as chronic hypertension) can have:
 

What Is High Blood Pressure? -- Treatment Options

Hypertension research scientists have found certain lifestyle changes that can lower blood pressure. With people for whom lifestyle changes cannot lower blood pressure to a "normal" level, blood pressure medication can be prescribed.
 
Lifestyle changes are the first form of high blood pressure treatment. Lifestyle changes help lower blood pressure, but they also usually help improve a person's quality of life . It may take three to six months before your healthcare provider sees the full benefit of lifestyle changes in your condition. Some of these changes may include:
 
Other lifestyle factors that may influence blood pressure and should be reduced or stopped completely include smoking and prolonged stress (see Smoking and High Blood Pressure or Stress and High Blood Pressure).
 
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Written by/reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD