Hypertension is a state of constantly high blood pressure that can put you at greater risk to a number of disorders and ailments. The blood pressure of an average person will often change depending on the situation they are in. If you have just exerted yourself with physical exercise, or if you are unusually stressed nr nervous, then your blood pressure will be higher. In most people this will then return to normal fairly quickly afterwords. However with hypertension this does not get any lower and your heart is under constant pressure.

The biggest risks from having hypertension are having heart attacks or a stroke. But also you are at higher risk from angina, kidney damage and circulatory problems as well. Often a cocktail of drugs such as warfarin is prescribed to lower the blood pressure and to help the risks lessen although these aren't really a cure, and so only act as a temporary solution.

There are two types of hypertension, primary and secondary. Primary is hypertension that has no obvious medical cause, and seemingly doesn't have any links to pre-existing medical conditions. Secondary differs in that it is characterized by being caused by an underlying problem that you might have already, such as diabetes. However for primary hypertension although there are no specific causes, there are a lot of factors that can all tend to contribute.

Things such as being very overweight, or eating a lot of salt in your diet can help the onset of the disorder. Although the main cause if usually just getting older. As we age the artery walls become thicker allowing less blood to pass through them, meaning that the pressure is gradually increased. There are also certain types of drugs such as steroids that can also be a cause. Some of these causes can be improved on, such as dieting and stopping taking steroids, which can result in the disorder going away. However this will also make it more likely that it will come back again later in life.

The difficulty in hypertension is that there are no symptoms in most cases. Occasionally if you have it very badly then you might experience blurred vision or headaches. But most people don't tend to put these down as a result of hypertension. However if you suffer from something known to be a contributing factor then your doctor will always check your blood pressure anyway. Diabetes medications are sometimes a cause as well, as some raise the blood pressure. And even carry a warning that they increase the risk of heart attacks when taking them. So people with diabetes are also much more at risk from developing hypertension as well.

Hypertension is also markedly more present in black people than white. While the cause of this isn't known specifically, it is known that particularly those of Caribbean or African descent are much more at risk than Caucasians or Asians. It is thought that genetic differences between the races are the cause for this susceptibility in black people. Which is also why black and white people can sometimes need different medications for treatments as well.

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