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These are temporary stress factors which are part of everyday living and unavoidable. However, the prolonged stress factors of perpetual problems at work or at home are much more important in sending up your blood pressure - and keeping it up.
There are therefore various reasons why your blood pressure remains raised. In medical jargon, raised blood pressure is called hypertension.
Unfortunately - and contrary to popular belief - hypertension is usually symptomless. In other words, you don't know you've got it!
I see dozens of patients each week who come with dizziness, headaches, blurred vision and noises in their ears, who are all convinced that they have high blood pressure.
Most of them haven't when I check it with my blood pressure machine.
How do you get to know if you have high blood pressure?
By getting an 'MOT', as we call it in our practice. That is a basic check-up, done by our nurse, and includes a blood pressure check, it you have not had one for a few years.
There are two elements in you blood pressure. There's the maximum pressure at which the heart shoots the blood round the body; and the minimum pressure after the blood has sped through all those 96,000 km of blood vessels.
Teacher: Michael
Many articles taken from 'A word with the doctor', by Dr. John Windsor.
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