Early Signs of High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is an early warning sign and risk factor for heart disease. But do you know the signs of high blood pressure? Here's what to look for.

Signs of High Blood Pressure

• The truth is that most people have no early signs of high blood pressure--the signs simply do not exist. Sometimes people with high blood pressure will have headaches or dizziness, but it's by far more common to have no signs or symptoms.

Misconceptions

• Many people incorrectly believe that a person needs risk factors, such as high stress or poor dietary habits, to have high blood pressure, but this is not the case. The condition can strike anyone.

Significance

• It is important to catch high blood pressure early so that you can make any necessary lifestyle changes to help lower your blood pressure.

Prevention/Solution

• High blood pressure can be treated with blood pressure medication. In some cases, doctors may advise stress reduction techniques or increased exercise as a first course of treatment, and using medication only if those strategies do not work.

Warning

• Because blood pressure can fluctuate over time and even throughout the course of the day, it's difficult to judge a person's blood pressure by a single measurement and best to take multiple measurements over a course of several days in order to determine whether a person has high blood pressure.