Living with It: How high blood pressure affects me
How high blood pressure affects me
Most doctors believe that there are no symptoms that can be objectively and consistently correlated with high blood pressure (hypertension) - This probably explains why high blood pressure (hypertension) often goes undetected.
There was some patient support to the claim that there are no symptoms, but those who said this were concerned by the uncertainty of whether they were taking risks doing things that they would previously have considered to be normal.
Many of the people interviewed did believe that they were experiencing symptoms from their high blood pressure (hypertension).
The most commonly described symptoms were headaches, dizziness and visual disturbances.
These symptoms are very similar to that of a migraine but it is difficult to know whether these people suffered with migraines as a separate matter from their high blood pressure (hypertension).
Some people had had their blood pressure checked at times when they were experiencing symptoms and found that it was indeed very high, though not all people interviewed knew what their blood pressure levels were.
A final confusion about symptoms was that some were described as associated with high blood pressure (hypertension), but were probably caused by the treatment rather than by the condition itself. (See 'Side effects of treatments'.)
For more information on high blood pressure see our Resources and Information section.
Last reviewed December 2011.
Last updated February 2010.
