Hypertension

Hypertension is also known as high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing on the walls of the arteries. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 /80. The first number, known as the systolic blood pressure, represents the pressure in the blood vessels when the heart beats. The second number is the diastolic blood pressure representing the pressure in the vessels when the heart rests in-between beats. When blood pressure exceeds 130/80 it is considered stage 1 hypertension. Stage 2 hypertension is blood pressure greater than 140/90. Elevated blood pressure commonly occurs due to atherosclerosis, stress, smoking, unhealthy diets and inactivity.

In the MAST study, those with severe headache intensity had a higher risk of hypertension. Additionally, after adjusting for socio-demographics, those with migraine were 1.51 times (50%) more likely to have hypertension than those in the non-migraine group.¹