ABSTRACT
A separate chapter on hypertension in this book sits rather awkwardly with the authors. One has contributed an editorial review Hypertension is a Myth (O’Rourke, 1983a) to a national journal. We are strongly of the view, championed by Sir George Pickering (Pickering, 1968; Pickering, 1982), that hypertension is not a disease but a problem of magnitude, that high blood pressure, however measured or expressed, increases the load on the heart and the stresses on arteries, and accelerates cardiovascular degeneration and disease.
