What is high blood pressure?

Your blood pressure is a measurement of the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body.  High blood pressure puts an extra strain on your arteries, weakening the artery walls and this raises the risk they may rupture leading to a stroke or heart attack.   And because the heart has to work harder to pump blood, the heart muscle may thicken.  As a result, high blood pressure can lead to a condition known as hypertension.

The symptoms of high blood pressure can include headaches, but most people don't have high blood pressure symptoms.  The good news is that high blood pressure is easily detected, and this can be done either with a simple painless test carried out by the GP or practice nurse, or you can do it yourself with a home monitoring kit.  But do remember, one off readings are unreliable, so get your blood pressure measured than once.

Now, people should get their blood pressure checked if they're overweight or don't take regular exercise, if they're stressed or have a stressful lifestyle, if they're smoking or drinking more than the recommended limits or if they have diabetes, high cholesterol or kidney problems.

And finally, if you've got a family history of high blood pressure you should also get your blood pressure checked out.