Over the past few years changes in lifestyle and diet in the majority of western societies have caused a growth in the number of individuals suffering from high blood pressure.

High blood pressure (otherwise called hypertension, or more accurately arterial hypertension) is a serious condition that rarely has any symptoms and which, if left undetected and untreated, can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm or renal failure - any one of which represents a serious life-threatening condition.

So just what is hypertension and just what causes it?

The arteries of the body are constantly filled with blood that provides a normal 'background' pressure on the artery walls. As the heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around your body it forces this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure on the artery walls with each heartbeat. These two pressures are called the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart pumps) and the diastolic pressure (the lesser 'background' pressure).

Normal blood pressure differs from one individual to the next but, in general, systolic pressure should be about 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure ought to be approximately 80 mm Hg. This is usually expressed as a blood pressure of 120/80.

Whenever your blood pressure starts to rise and stays above 120/80 then you are described as being 'prehypertensive' and, while this is not serious in itself, it is a sign that you could be at risk of developing hypertension and all of the problems which are linked with it. Once your blood pressure rises to, and maintains, a level of 140/90 or higher then you are said to be suffering from hypertension and steps need to be taken to lower your blood pressure.

So what makes you blood pressure rise and then stay at a high level?

Well, there are a number of factors at play here and the first is a group over which you have little, or no, control. This group of factors includes a low weight at birth, a variety of genetic factors, some forms of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age our arteries display a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, producing a smaller cross-sectional area for the blood to flow through).

The next group of factors is much more controllable and includes leading a sedentary lifestyle, high levels of salt and saturated fats in the diet, excess weight, smoking, alcohol abuse, stress and employment in certain occupations such as flying or motorway maintenance.

The vast majority of these factors are of course treatable and, in a lot of cases, a quite simple change in your eating habits and the addition of a bit of exercise into your daily routine is all that is necessary to cure the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few, or no, symptoms, the vast majority of people do not know that they have high blood pressure in the first place.

So how can you cure the problem?

Well, fortunately, the answer to this particular question is fairly simple. All you need to do is to drop by your physician's office on a regular basis (for most of us a couple of times a year will do the trick) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure for you. The whole procedure is pain free, simple and fast and will provide you with peace of mind and may save your doctor a lot of time, work and expense later on when you are forced to visit his office once high blood pressure sets in.

If you are not so keen on visiting your doctor then one excellent alternative now is to monitor your own blood pressure at home. A wide range of easy to operate and quite inexpensive blood pressure monitors are available today, allowing you to maintain a check on your own health, as well as that of your entire family, in the privacy and comfort of your own home.