HealthInfo Canterbury
High blood pressure & kidney disease
High blood pressure (hypertension) is when the pressure caused by your blood pushing on the walls of your arteries is too high. This causes your heart to work harder and damages your blood vessels.
High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of chronic kidney disease.
There are lots of tiny blood vessels in your kidneys and untreated high blood pressure makes them narrow and harden. This makes your kidneys become less able to remove waste and extra fluid. The extra fluid then increases your blood pressure even further, adding to the problem.
Your kidneys also influence blood pressure as they produce a hormone that helps controls blood pressure. When they aren't working well, they can't do that properly.
If you have high blood pressure for a long time, your kidneys can eventually fail.
Diagnosing high blood pressure
Most people don't know they have high blood pressure unless they have it measured. But if your blood pressure is very high, you may get symptoms such as headaches, blurred or double vision or nosebleeds.
Treating high blood pressure
Read about what you can do if you have high blood pressure. You may also be prescribed tablets to help control your blood pressure. See which medicines are used to lower blood pressure.
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed July 2021.
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SourcesReview key: HIKID-202879
