High blood pressure is the most diagnosed condition in the United States today and it is now estimated that it affects some seventy-two million US citizens, including 1 out of every 3 adults. But, while we talk about high blood pressure, were you aware that there are in fact two forms of high blood pressure?

The vast majority of people suffer from what is known as primary or essential high blood pressure which often has few, or no, symptoms and often develops slowly over several years. A much smaller, but nonetheless still significant, number of people suffer from secondary high blood pressure which is born out of an underlying medical condition and can sometimes arise with an extremely rapid onset.

The medical conditions that can produce secondary high blood pressure are many and varied but listed below are some of the more commonly found causes:

Sleep Apnea. The constant interruption to your breathing caused by sleep apnea leads to oxygen deprivation which causes damage to the lining of the blood vessels and affects the elasticity necessary in those blood vessels to control your blood pressure.

Kidney Problems. Your kidneys contain literally millions of minute blood vessels and other structures that are designed to filter waste products from the blood. When this process of filtering is interrupted, in the case of hydronephrosis or Polycystic kidney disease, one of the results is secondary high blood pressure.

Obesity. Gaining weight is often accompanied by a rise in your heart rate, as the heart comes under pressure to pump an increasing amount of blood around the body, and a consequently raised pressure on the walls of the arteries.

Dietary Supplements. Many commonly available dietary supplements, like St John's wort and ginseng, can produce high blood pressure.

Thyroid Problems. Excess or inadequate hormone production by the thyroid gland, experienced in conditions like hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, can, either directly or indirectly, result in a rise in your blood pressure.

This list is not of course exhaustive and could also have included such things as prescription and over-the-counter medication, preeclampsia, Cushing's syndrome, diabetes and much more.

High blood pressure, whether secondary or primary, is a serious medical condition that can lead to the development of other life-threatening conditions like heart disease, cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.

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TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on a variety of topics including the cause of high blood pressure, the importance of blood pressure monitoring and finding the best Omron blood pressure monitor