High blood pressure - or hypertension - is one of the more common medical conditions in the UK, with a reported 25% of women diagnosed with it. Luckily, GPs screen for high blood pressure at most check-ups, so if you do have it, it'll be caught quickly and you can reduce your risk with easy lifestyle changes.
First things first - if you're worried about high blood pressure, speak to your doctor. It's a condition that can have serious long-term ramifications for your health, the experts warn, with hypertension being a leading cause of strokes and heart attacks in women. "Blood pressure measures the force that one's heart requires to push blood through the blood vessels and the arteries to supply oxygen and nutrition to the body’s organs," says Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr Elijah Behr. "If it is too high, it can cause damage to the organs, especially the heart itself, the brain and the kidneys. High blood pressure is also a common cause of cardiovascular disease."
