Definition of Primary Hypertension

Primary hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure, raises your risk of serious health problems, such as heart attack and stroke. However, you can have it for years without showing symptoms, allowing it to go undetected, even when your blood pressure is dangerously high--an estimated one-third of the Americans with high blood pressure don't even know they're affected. The good news: Once primary hypertension is identified, you can take steps to control it and avoid related problems.

Blood Pressure

• Blood pressure is a measure of how much blood your heart pumps and the resistance it encounters when flowing through your arteries. The higher your blood volume and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

Awareness

• Some people with primary hypertension have symptoms such as dull headaches, dizziness or nosebleeds. However, these warning signs rarely appear until the problem is severe, maybe even life-threatening. Therefore, it's important to have your blood pressure checked at least every two years starting at age 20, or more frequently if your doctor recommends. Blood pressure screenings often are available at events like local health fairs, as well as via drugstore machines--but be aware that these machines are not always accurate.

Causes

• Primary hypertension, by definition, has no identifiable cause. However, certain factors increase your risk of primary hypertension, including age (older people are at higher risk), race (black people are at higher risk) and a family history of the condition.
  Being overweight, not exercising enough, using tobacco, poor nutrition, drinking too much alcohol and stress all increase your risk of primary hypertension as well.

Treatment

• If you have primary hypertension, your doctor is likely to recommend certain lifestyle changes to help control it. Medication is often prescribed, in addition to adjustments to your diet and exercise routine. Exactly which medication, or combination of medications, is prescribed depends on how advanced your primary hypertension is and what other medical problems, if any, you have.

Secondary Hypertension

• Primary hypertension accounts for nearly all cases of high blood pressure. Five percent to 10 percent of the time, however, high blood pressure is caused by conditions affecting the kidneys, heart, endocrine system or arteries. In these cases, the condition is referred to as secondary hypertension. Besides having different causes, secondary hypertension is distinguished from primary hypertension by the fact that the former usually appears suddenly, rather than over a long period of time, as primary hypertension does.