High Blood Pressure

Blood in the arteries is under pressure, like water in a hose-pipe with the tap turned on. Blood pressure is pulsatile, rising to a systolic peak with each heart-beat and falling to a diastolic trough in between beats. Just as the pressure in the hose pipe (the strength of the jet) gets higher if the … Read more

One of the great success stories of medical research in recent years has been in the understanding and control of high blood pressure, Before 1950 there was virtually no treatment and high blood pressure often resulted in strokes, heart failure and sometimes blindness. The basic cause of the condition, namely undue constriction of the small … Read more