Normal blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg.
Once blood pressure is above 140/90 mmHg, it is labeled as high blood pressure or Hypertension. Most of the time high blood pressure by itself does not produce any symptoms.
Hence patients are usually unaware of their high blood pressure for a long time before they are diagnosed for one reason or another.
As a result screening for high blood pressure should be a routine on all visits to a doctor. As hypertension usually remains silent and is noticed once it has caused significant damage, it is often called the “silent killer”.
High blood pressure can damage the small blood vessels and makes them thicker. Blood supply to the organs through these blood vessels decreases with the passage of time and as a result the effected organs are deprived of normal blood supply rendering them ischemic (low in blood).
Hence high blood pressure can damage vital organs of the body like the heart, brain, eyes and kidneys.
Most of the time high blood pressure occurs without any apparent reason and is called Essential Hypertension but some times it may occur secondarily to kidney diseases, diseases of the thyroid and adrenal glands and even in some complications of pregnancy.