Cardiology professor Dr. Khaled Al-Nemer warned against relying on headaches as an indicator of high blood pressure, stressing that high blood pressure is a silent disease that can affect a person without showing clear symptoms.

Dr. Al-Nemer explained that the relationship between headache and high blood pressure is not consistent in both directions, noting that if a patient with chronic high blood pressure has a systolic reading below 180 mmHg and experiences a headache, the cause is often not the blood pressure, which calls for investigating other causes.

He added that severe high blood pressure when the systolic reading reaches 180 mmHg or more increases the rate of headache complaints to about 30%, compared to 15% among those with controlled blood pressure.

Dr. Al-Nemer emphasized the importance of regularly measuring blood pressure and not waiting for headaches or other symptoms to detect it, as this contributes to early diagnosis and avoidance of serious health complications.