Overview

• Up to five million people in the UK may be living with untreated hypertension, a condition that often has no obvious symptoms.
• Well Pharmacy’s George Sandhu highlights four modifiable risks linked to undetected high blood pressure: poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking and stress.
• The only reliable way to know your status is to have your blood pressure measured by a healthcare professional.
• Hypertension is cited as contributing to around half of strokes and heart attacks in the UK and was linked to 75,000 deaths in England in 2015.
• NHS guidance recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly and notes additional risks such as age, family history, certain ethnic backgrounds, being overweight and high alcohol intake, with stress-management practices like breathing exercises, swimming or yoga advised.