Now for those who have spent the majority of their lives struggling with their weight or living on one diet or another then the above statement probably doesn't come as too much of a surprise.



The findings that support this theory have been published in a study in the United States recently and the report concerning US military veteran's suffering from hypertension or high blood pressure in 15 cities. The study covered a five-year period and covered cities from as far apart as Anchorage in Alaska in the north and San Juan in Puerto Rico in the south.

Overall it was found that about 60% of the patients taking part in this study had a marked change in blood pressure control in the winter.

Now researchers haven't necessarily figured out just what is causing this but it does seem to be beyond being powered purely by changes in temperature and daylight that occurred during the winter or are influenced by the latitude of the city taking part.

What exactly is high blood pressure and quite why can it (if left untreated) be so deadly?

In most cases and that means that only in 5 percent of cases will the sufferers be aware that they have high blood pressure.

The majority of sufferers of high blood pressure, if undiagnosed go years without being aware of their condition, the so called "Silent Killer".

Though termed "symptom less", there are certain signs that should not be ignored and definitely left untreated if spotted.

These symptoms can include the following: Dizziness, Fainting Spells, Morning Headache, Increased frequency of urinating at night.

Any of the above symptoms can indicate high blood pressure but running the risk of causing more confusion they could just as easily indicate other conditions if experienced in isolation.

OK, we have all heard the term high blood pressure but what exactly does it mean?

Well, if we are to go back to basics then the body's major tissues and organs are supplied and fed with blood pumped to them from the heart via a network of hose like vessels called arteries.

In nine cases out of ten then the particular cause of high blood pressure is hard to identify and as such in these cases the high blood pressure is termed "Primary (Essential) High Blood Pressure".

In the majority of cases where the cause of the high blood pressure can be traced directly to one particular failing organ or cause then it is not uncommon for the associate problems to be treated successfully where this "Secondary High Blood Pressure" is not the direct cause of the associate high blood pressure.

In every one out of ten cases of high blood pressure diagnosed, the incidence falls within the category known as "Malignant Hypertension". Quite often this is discovered totally by accident and may be as a result of an associate test such as an eye test whereby the Optician can sometimes detect the condition by merely looking into a patients eye.

The one thing this study has highlighted however is that high blood pressure is something that must be taken seriously.