High blood pressure, and what it does while you feel fine
It produces almost no symptoms until it has already caused damage. That is the entire problem with it, and the entire reason to measure.
Raised blood pressure is a problem of arithmetic rather than sensation. It does not hurt. It rarely announces itself. What it does is apply slightly too much force, continuously, for years, to the heart, the brain, the kidneys and the small vessels of the eyes.
Where the damage goes
The heart thickens because it is pushing against resistance. The kidneys filter under pressure they were not built for. The vessels in the brain and the retina — the smallest and least forgiving — take the strain that shows up decades later as a stroke or as failing sight.
None of this produces a symptom you would notice on the way. That is precisely why the number is treated seriously in the absence of any complaint at all.
It rarely arrives alone
Raised blood pressure in someone with a widening waist, raised triglycerides and a borderline sugar is not a separate illness that happened to appear. It is one more expression of the same metabolic picture, which is why an assessment here looks at the whole set rather than the one number that was flagged.
Measuring it properly
- Seated, back supported, feet flat on the floor
- Arm resting at the level of the heart
- Five minutes of quiet first — no rushing in and sitting down
- No tea, coffee or cigarette in the half hour before
- Two readings a minute apart, and write both down
- Morning and evening for two weeks before your appointment
A fortnight of readings taken like that is a genuinely useful document. One reading taken after climbing stairs to a clinic is not, and decisions made on it tend to be wrong in both directions.
A very high reading with chest pain, breathlessness, severe headache, visual change, weakness on one side or difficulty speaking is an emergency. Go to a hospital now — not to an appointment, and not to any clinic.
Questions people ask
- Does high blood pressure have symptoms?
- Usually none at all, which is why it is called silent. Headache, dizziness and nosebleeds are unreliable indicators — most people with raised pressure have no symptoms until damage to the heart, brain, kidneys or eyes has already begun.
- Can I stop my blood pressure medicine if my readings improve?
- Not on your own. Readings improving is often the medication working, and stopping it is how a controlled pressure becomes an uncontrolled one. If sustained changes have genuinely altered the picture, take the readings to the physician who prescribed it and let them decide.
- How should I measure blood pressure at home?
- Seated, feet flat, back supported, arm at heart level, after five minutes of rest, with no tea or coffee beforehand. Two readings a minute apart, morning and evening, written down. A fortnight of that is worth far more than one reading taken in a clinic corridor.