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bout one in three UK adults (32 per cent) are thought to be living with high blood pressure, or hypertension, yet for as many as four million people in England it remains undiagnosed. Labelled a “silent killer”, hypertension has few symptoms — and takes hold insidiously — but if left untreated can lead to fatal heart attacks, kidney disease and vascular dementia.

In its recent campaign to find these “missing millions”, which is backed by charities including the British Heart Foundation, Blood Pressure UK and the Stroke Association, the NHS warns that the fact that high blood pressure strikes with “no clues” means that many are unaware of the risk before it’s too late.

A recent survey for NHS England of 2,000 midlifers found that

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