High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) - What Happens

SYMPTOMS & TREATMENTS

Healthy arteries have smooth inner walls. Your blood flows through them without a problem. The blood vessels stay strong and flexible.

But when you have high blood pressure, blood flows through your arteries with too much force, even though you can't feel it. Over time, this damages the walls of your arteries. They aren't smooth anymore. They get rough spots on them where fat and calcium start to build up. This buildup is called plaque (say "plak").

Plaque is part of atherosclerosis, sometimes called "hardening of the arteries." Over time, the plaque narrows the artery and blocks blood flow through it.

Atherosclerosis makes your arteries narrower. It also makes them stiffer. Blood can't flow through them as easily. This lack of good blood flow starts to damage some of the organs in your body.

See a picture of how high blood pressure damages arteries Click here to see an illustration..

This damage doesn't happen all at once. It happens slowly over time. But you can't tell that it's happening, because you don't feel anything. It can lead to:

By: Healthwise StaffLast Revised: April 4, 2011
Medical Review: E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine
Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology

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