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Our heart pumps blood which carries nutrients and oxygen around our body through the circulatory system under controlled pressure in a regular 'wave' pattern which is now referred to as blood pressure. The measurement of blood pressure dates back to as early as 2600 BC, but clear measurement and how it could be treated only dates back to the later part of the 20th century. High blood pressure or hypertension can lead to serious health problems, such as stroke, heart attack, kidney disease or heart failure. There are often no symptoms or signs of high blood pressure, you can have high blood pressure and still feel healthy. It is often nick named the silent killer because of that factor. Therefore, it is important that you have regular blood pressure checks.

Prior to the use of a blood pressure cuff, blood pressure was measured by the hardness of the arterial pulse. High blood pressure was called the 'hard pulse disease' and treatment consisted of the application of leeches and blood letting. In the 19th and 20th century, before the development of modern medicines the only known cure for high blood pressure was a low-salt diet to reduce sodium and chloride intake.

'A method for measuring blood pressure clinically was discovered less than 100 years ago' (ed. Laragh 1995). It is now measured in millimeters of mercury. During measurement, a cuff is placed around the upper arm and it is inflated until it is clearly above the predicted upper number. Then it is slowly deflated while listening to the sound of blood using a stethoscope. Blood pressure is expressed in two numbers, the top (or systolic) and the bottom (or diastolic). Normal blood pressure is 120/70. To be diagnosed with high blood pressure, your blood pressure needs to be 140/90 or higher. Although there is no firm 'rule' that defines high blood pressure. The risk of a heart failure, stoke or kidney disease becomes higher as your blood pressure becomes higher. Heart failure is when the heart is not able to pump out enough blood. This often results is death. There are three types of strokes; a Mini stroke (TIA), an Ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke.  A Mini stroke is a transient ischemic attack (TIA). TIA strokes have similar causes and symptoms of a regular stroke. TIA's should be regarded as a warning sign that the person is at risk of a more severe stroke. An Ischemic stroke is a blood clot in the brain. Usually, blood clots are good as when you are wounded or bleeding, blood clots help stop blood flowing from the wound. But when it is in the brain, it blocks the arteries and the flow of blood to the brain. This cuts oxygen and nutrient supplies to the brain and stops the brain from functioning. Four out of every five strokes are Ischemic. A haemorrhagic stroke is when the wall of an artery or blood vessel bursts in the brain. This leads to blood bleeding into the brain, and starving the brain of nutrients and oxygen. One in every five strokes is Hemorrhagic. Kidney diseases can be a serious health problem.

In modern day, there are still low-salt diets, but there is also modern pharmacological treatments (medicines) of which sodium thiocyanate was the first in 1900. Smoking, high cholesterol, un-healthy life styles, un-healthy eating -overweight, diabetes, alcohol intake and social influences such as stress increase your blood pressure as well. Doctors often ask you to change your lifestyle to exclude these factors to reduce blood pressure. During the 1950's fluid pills (thiazide diuretics) were used to control blood pressure although how they worked to reduce blood pressure is still unclear today.

Today there are many pharmacological treatments available to lower blood pressure including beta blockers, calcium channel blockers (such as verapamil), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as captopril), and more recently angiotension receptor blockers (ARB's)  and rennin inhibitors which are used as antihypertensive medications.

Management of hypertension has been said to be the greatest medical success story of the 20th century. It is remarkable that it has taken less than 90 years from the time high blood pressure was first recognized clinically to the present period of effective control (ed Laragh 1995). Hypertension or high blood pressure is the most frequent, long term medical problem seen in modern medicine (Guthrie2012).  Advances in modern medicine has enabled treatment of this serious and very common condition which has resulted in a significant reduction in heart attack coronary heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

THE MORE YOU KNOW!!!