Because of the silent and insidious way it works in the background i.e. no symptoms it is referred to as the Silent Killer. High blood pressure if left untreated and ignored can lead to lethal complications in a wide variety of illnesses. In the United States of America alone their estimate to be 50 million sufferers of High Blood Pressure.

It would appear in certain cases but there are greater percentage of sufferers of high blood pressure amongst the black community as opposed to those in the white or Hispanic community in the USA. For blacks it would also appear the adverse consequences of high blood pressure were worse.

High blood pressure occurs more often in older people'in about three fourths of women and almost two thirds of men aged 75 or older, compared with only about one fourth of people aged 20 to 74. If you are overweight then your chances of suffering from high blood pressure also increase.

In the United States, only an estimated two of three people with high blood pressure have been diagnosed. The treatment figures for high blood pressure and associated conditions are even lower with only 75% of the diagnosed sufferers actually receiving medical treatment.

When blood pressure is checked, two values are recorded. The higher value reflects the highest pressure in the arteries, which is reached when the heart contracts (during systole).The lower value reflects the lowest pressure in the arteries, which is reached just before the heart begins to contract again (during diastole).

Blood pressure figures are written as two numbers, the first over the second (120 over 80) and is calculated in millimetres of mercury which is the traditional form of measurement. In the early days it was felt that high blood pressure started when the diastolic pressure walls at a minimum average over 140 mm Hg all the diastolic figure was greater than 90 mm Hg.

However it has now been recognized that even these figures may be arbitrary as even the smallest increase in blood pressure is a risk. The change in the approach to these limits has occurred through increased research into hypertension highlighting additional unforeseen complications.

Research has shown that it is not unusual for raised figures in both systolic and diastolic pressures for sufferers of high blood pressure.The exception is older people who commonly have high systolic pressure (140 mm Hg or more) with normal or low diastolic pressure (less than 90 mm Hg).

The term for this condition is ?isolated systolic hypertension?. At the upper end of the spectrum where the blood pressure is over 180/110 and remains so with a lack of associated symptoms then this condition is deemed to be known as ?a hypertensive urgency.?

Where the blood pressure is particularly severe and in excess of 210/120 mm Hg then the condition is deemed to be known as malignant hypertension. This additional condition has only been known to occur in approximately 1 out of every 200 incidences of high blood pressure.

However, it is several times more common among blacks than among whites, among men than among women, and among people in lower socioeconomic groups than among those in higher socioeconomic groups. Malignant hypertension unlike hypertensive urgency produces a variety of symptoms. Malignant hypertension if left untreated can lead to fatal consequences within six months.