What is Hypertension?
High Blood Pressure Readings

What is hypertension if not a silent killer? With few if any hypertension warning signs this condition can go undetected unless you monitor your blood pressure readings.

Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to organ damage and is one of the main causes of strokes and heart failure.

The clinical definition of hypertension is based on the numbers of your blood pressure reading.

• Systolic pressure - the pressure in the arteries produced when the heart contracts (at the time of a heart beat)


• Diastolic pressure - the pressure in the arteries during relaxation of the heart between heart beats.

Obviously when your heart muscle is contracting and squeezing out the blood the pressure will be higher. It is the bottom number or the diastolic pressure reading the represents the pressure of the blood in your arteries when the heart is between contractions and this number is considered the most important indicator of the health of your arteries and the risk of future problems.

The best way to understand your blood pressure is to think about a fluid travelling through a hose. That fluid exerts a specific pressure against the walls of the hose.

The pressure will go down if:

• you turn the tap down and deliver less water or deliver it more slowly
• you use a bigger hose

The pressure will go up if:

• you turn the tap up
• you step on the hose, or use a narrower hose
• there is a blockage in the hose

This is what happens in your circulation. The heart is the pump that keeps the fluid going at an even pressure. If anything happens to the heart or there is a change in the diameter of the blood vessels then blood pressure will go up or down accordingly.

Without regular monitoring of your blood pressure levels you might not even know you have hypertension until you suffer one of these complications:

• heart failure
• heart attack
• stroke

This is why hypertension is called the silent killer.

More Smoking Facts

Is smoking what causes hypertension? Go from this explanation of
What is Hypertension to What Causes Hypertension?
and read about the paradoxical effect of smoking on blood pressure.

Go back to Smoking Effects on the Body - Smoking Facts and the Harmful Effects of Tobacco

Go back to Causes of Heart Attack - Smoking Facts about the Causes of Myocardial Infarction

Go back to Peripheral Artery Disease - Smoking Facts About Occlusive Atherosclerosis Disease

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