Introduction

Blood pressure is the pressure the circulating blood exerts on the walls of the arteries . It is comprised of two readings the highest pressure at  systole which occurs when the heart is contracting and the lowest pressure at diastole when the heart is relaxing   A normal blood pressure should be around 120/80mmHg. High blood pressure is known as hypertension and is classed as blood pressure which consistently exceeds 140/90mmHg.

Millions of people worldwide suffer from hypertension with the porbabilty of developing this condition increasing with age. In 2006 in the UK 31% of men and 28% of women had high blood pressure. Hypertension can seriously impact on health. For  adults aged 40-69 each 20mmHg rise in systolic and 10mmHg rise in dystolic pressure doubles the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

In the USA in 2005 the death rates per 100,000 population from hypertension were 15.8 for white males, 52.1 for black males, 15.1 for white females and 40.3 for black females. So ethnicity and sex may predispose people to the condition.  It has also been found that African Americans are twice as likely to develop hypertension than Caucasian Americans

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