Matthew Lucks, M.D., Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla
Question: How does high blood pressure hurt the body?
Answer: High blood pressure can affect the body in many ways. First off, most people know that high blood pressure is a direct contributor to heart attack and stroke, but it can also affect the body in many other ways. For example, long-standing high blood pressure -- blood pressure that's been high and has been left untreated for a long periods of time -- can cause weakening of the heart muscle.
The other things it can do, is affect other organs of the body such as the kidneys -- long-term high blood pressure can lead to kidney damage. It can affect the eye blood vessels as well.
So in fact, it could lead to either visual changes or blindness if left untreated, as I said, for a long period of time.
