“What are the various causes of high blood pressure?”

High blood pressure is very common. Under the current guidelines hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure above 130 mmHg, 46% of American adults have hypertension. More than 90% of hypertension is labeled as “essential hypertension.” This basically means that there is no apparent cause of hypertension. However, the most common causes in these types of patients are obesity as well as diabetes and mild kidney dysfunction. In other cases, there is a definable “secondary“ because of the high blood pressure these would include conditions were the aldosterone levels secreted by the adrenal glands are increased, or hyperthyroidism, and occasionally other more rare conditions including tumors that secrete epinephrine, etc.