Doctors and Scientists have discovered certain risk factors are more likely to predispose an indivdual to hypertension.

Because Hypertension usually doesn’t cause us to feel unwell it’s usually ignored and often picked up or diagnosed during the course of a routine checkups.

In my case I was lucky (well sort of!) I don’t know if there is a word for opposite of hypochondriac but that was me – I prided my self on not bothering my GP only ever visiting him in the direst emergency. I had severe hypertension but because this condition had no symptoms I didn’t visit my doctor’s and it went undetected for god knows how long. When I had the retinal fissure the disease now had a symptom – spots before the eyes – and this symptom had a sign, a damaged area of the retina that could been seen using the slit lamp. The blood pressure test I had done indicated the sign of another condition Hypertension

Once this is diagnosed I was in the loop and begin to do something about managing  it but it could have gone undetected for a long time putting me at risk.

The important thing to come from all this is get your blood pressure checked and get it checked now! Considering how quick and simple it is to check your blood pressure you can either ask your GP or obtain a home blood pressure monitor and check it yourself

There are common risk factors which have emerged…

·  Lifestyle risk factors that can be prevented or changed:

• Smoking.
• Lack of physical activity (a sedentary lifestyle).
• Obesity.
• An unhealthy diet.
• Excess alcohol.

·  Treatable or partly treatable risk factors:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure).
• High cholesterol blood level.
• High trigliceride (fat) blood level.
• Diabetes.
• Kidney diseases that affect kidney function.

·  Fixed risk factors - ones that you cannot alter:

• A strong family history. This means if you have a father or brother who developed heart disease or a stroke before they were 55, or in a mother or sister before they were 65.
• Being male.
• An early menopause in women.
• Age. The older you become, the more likely you are to develop atheroma.
• Ethnic group. For example, people who live in the UK with ancestry from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka have an increased risk.