If you're like most people, you probably think of heart attack and stroke when you think of the risks of high blood pressure. Actually, most people with hypertension never suffer these most extreme consequences. But sadly, few ever escape scot-free. That's because high blood pressure wrecks invisible havoc on your body, doing serious damage undetected.

Hypertension puts a severe load on every organ of the body, not just your heart. The kidneys are one of the organs most susceptible to damage from excess pressure. Damaged kidneys fail to sufficiently remove waste and excess fluid from the blood and excess fluid acts to further increase blood pressure. The final result of this vicious circle is kidney failure, for which the only effective treatment is a transplant.

The eyes are very sensitive to high blood pressure. If your eyes become more sensitive to touch than usual it could be a sign of hypertension as it actually increases the internal pressure in the eyeball. This can also be the cause of blurred vision or other sight problems. Tiny capillaries in the eye can burst causing a bloodshot appearance or doing even more serious damage.

But all this pales in comparison to the biggest, yet invisible, risk of the so-called "silent killer": vascular disease, more commonly called hardening of the arteries. Constant high pressure on the walls of blood vessels builds up resistance, thickening and hardening them. It's a natural defensive reaction of your body to high blood pressure; it wants to protect your blood vessels from bursting under the pressure and bringing on a stroke or other severe consequence.

Sadly, in trying to protect you from a sudden health crisis your body's reaction to hypertension is creating a long-term health crisis. Hardened arteries become thicker, restricting blood flow and contributing to a condition called ischemia or lack of blood supply. This causes further damage to the organs.

Hardened arteries also become less flexible and this has specific effects on your health. Imagine a tough old garden hose that has baked under the sun. Instead of wrapping smoothly around corners like a new hose it collapses on itself, cutting off water flow. The flexibility of blood vessels is a major factor in determining how you age. Healthy, flexible arteries can make all the difference between aging gracefully, full of good health and energy, or growing old before your time while suffering constant health problems.

Speaking of aging, there's one further problem related to blood flow that's often (incorrectly) associated with growing old. At least when it comes to men... yes, it's erectile dysfunction. I say the association is incorrect because it's actually high blood pressure and hardened arteries that are at fault. Any organ or physiological process dependent on blood flow (which is pretty much everything) is going to suffer when you have high blood pressure. If this doesn't motivate at least half the population towards lower blood pressure then nothing will!

Heart attacks and strokes are just two possible outcomes of damage that started years before, damage that accumulates invisibly when you live with high blood pressure. You may never experience these frightening results but the damage is being done. Luckily, there's a 100% surefire way to prevent all these problems: lower blood pressure. It's not difficult. Doctors agree that up to 95% of hypertension cases can be treated with lifestyle changes and other natural methods. And there are a number of powerful medications, strictly as a last resort, for those rare cases that refuse to respond to nature.

Get your blood pressure checked and take immediate action if it's too high. Don't be fooled just because you feel well.