Blood pressure is the measure of how much pressure or force your heart needs to exert in order to push your blood through your blood vessels. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious medical condition in which the force needed to move the blood is too high, making the heart work extra hard. Hypertension is one of the top causes of CKD. When blood pressure is too high, it can cause the walls of blood vessels to thicken and become stiff, and can also damage other organs throughout the body.

Kidneys have dense blood vessels and large amounts of blood flow through them. Over time, the arteries can narrow, weaken or harden because of uncontrolled high blood pressure. Eventually, the damaged arteries cannot deliver blood well to the kidneys, resulting in kidney damage.  

Fact Sheets: H [2]igh Blood Pressure and Chronic Kidney Disease  [3]	Classroom: The Heart of the Matter [4]
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