If you have high blood pressure (hypertension), your blood moves through the arteries with too much force against the inside of the artery walls. The result can be harmful effects throughout the body such as the following:

• Damage and weakening of the walls of the heart’s arteries, and damage to the heart itself, which must work harder to pump blood through the vessels. This might lead to heart attack, or heart failure.
• Damage to the arteries leading to the brain and eyes, which can be weakened and more likely to burst over time with uncontrolled high blood pressure. This might lead to stroke or eye disease of the retina.
• Damage to the arteries of the kidneys, which may cause them to fail to remove enough waste and extra fluid from the blood. This extra blood volume would further increase blood pressure and cause a dangerous cycle of uncontrolled high blood pressure. This failure of the kidneys may require dialysis.