Silent Killers: Part one

Cardiovascular disease (disease of the heart and circulatory system) is now responsible for a quarter of all deaths in the UK, usually as a result of heart attacks and strokes. Fifty years ago, this figure was closer to a half, and the reduction is largely the result of identifying and modifying risk factors. Some of these risk factors - take smoking or obesity - are visible, and largely within our own control. Others can sit unnoticed in the background, unless we go looking for them. One of these is hypertension.

Hypertension describes a situation where the pressure of blood within blood vessels is too high. We talk about two figures: The top one (the systolic) is the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats; the bottom one (the diastolic) is the pressure in between beats. Both are important. High pressure won’t usually cause any symptoms but leads to damage accumulating within these vessels and puts added strain on the heart. Hypertension is more commonly seen alongside obesity, high levels of alcohol and salt consumption, and stressful but sedentary lifestyles so adjustments in these areas are important. However, we also see high blood pressure in people who are doing everything “right” and know that blood pressure often increases with age and associated stiffening of blood vessels.

The only way of knowing if your blood pressure is raised is to have it checked. This can be done easily via any pharmacy or your GP surgery. Many people now have access to a monitor at home which is the ideal environment to be assessing blood pressure. Don’t worry about the occasional reading being high, but if the average of readings over the course of several days is above 135/85 then do contact your GP surgery. Once we know about it, managing high blood pressure is usually very straight forward.

Dr Chris Humphrey

Published: Feb 26, 2026