High blood pressure is a common condition where the long-term force of blood against the artery walls is high enough that it may cause health problems such as heart disease.

Both the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to the blood flow in your arteries determines blood pressure. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

You can have high blood pressure for years without any symptoms. Even without symptoms, damage to blood vessels and year heart continues and can be detected. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases your risk of severe health problems such as heart attack and stroke.

High blood pressure develops over many years, and it affects nearly everyone eventually. Fortunately, it can be easily detected and once detected you can work with your doctor to control it.