What’s truly shocking is how little we talk about it. Despite how widespread it is, blood pressure still isn’t treated with the urgency it deserves. We debate protein intake, track our steps obsessively, optimise sleep scores and supplements – yet the single strongest predictor of heart attack and stroke rarely enters everyday conversation. That disconnect isn’t just surprising. It’s unacceptable.
Too many people only start paying attention when something goes wrong. We don’t check our numbers regularly, and we don’t encourage our parents, partners or friends to do so either. It’s not because we don’t care. It’s because high blood pressure is invisible and rarely feels urgent… until it is.
High blood pressure is one of the biggest and most overlooked health risks we face, and yet we are still catching it far too late. In this piece, I wanted to highlight why we urgently need to shift from reactive treatment to prevention-led care. At Hilo, we’re working to support that shift by making blood pressure monitoring continuous, accessible and part of everyday life so people can understand their risk earlier and act before it becomes a problem.
What makes this even more frustrating is that hypertension is not an inevitable part of life. In many cases, it is preventable, treatable, and manageable. We already have the knowledge and tools to reduce risk, what we lack is consistent awareness and early action at scale.
When I stepped into my role as CEO of Hilo by Aktiia, I expected to enter a world of complex science and technical innovation. And while that has certainly been true, what struck me most was something else entirely: how normalised this neglect has become. How comfortable we are ignoring the single most dangerous number in our health profile.
Blood pressure affects billions of people worldwide and is one of the strongest predictors of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and early mortality. Yet it still does not occupy the same space in public awareness as other health topics, even comparatively minor ones. Many people can quote their cholesterol level, their blood sugar, their BMI, or their step count. Far fewer can tell you their blood pressure, and even fewer understand what it means.
In the UK alone, around one in three adults is estimated to have high blood pressure, yet a significant portion are undiagnosed or unaware. That means millions of people are living with elevated risk every day, without knowing it. Even among those who have been told their blood pressure is high, many don’t monitor it regularly, and some don’t fully understand how quickly it can do damage if left unmanaged. And because high blood pressure is so often symptomless, it creates a dangerous illusion: if you feel fine, you assume you are fine.
We recently published our first UK Blood Pressure Report: A Nation Under Pressure, to better understand how the public thinks about blood pressure and how these beliefs shape behaviour. The findings revealed not only widespread confusion, but a stark and uncomfortable inequality.
This is why blood pressure is not just an individual lifestyle topic, it is a deep-rooted societal and policy issue. When millions of people are living with preventable risk and entire groups are systematically less informed than others, the responsibility cannot fall solely on the individual. It has to be addressed through education, access and public health infrastructure.
There is a simple truth at the core of prevention: people act on what they can see. We have seen this with step counters. When people track their movement, behaviour shifts – not because of sudden discipline, but because feedback is immediate. The data turns something abstract into something visible.
Blood pressure should work the same way – but instead, we are still largely relying on technology that is more than a century old.
Traditional monitoring depends on occasional cuff-based measurements at the GP, pharmacy or at home. These readings are only mere snapshots. Blood pressure fluctuates constantly depending on stress, sleep, caffeine, posture and time of day. A single reading can mislead, and for many, regular cuff-based monitoring is uncomfortable or unrealistic to maintain. Meanwhile, nearly every other area of health has evolved into continuous, connected insight. Blood pressure has lagged behind.
Continuous, cuffless monitoring represents a step change. It moves us beyond isolated readings to patterns. When you can see how your blood pressure behaves over days and weeks – how it responds to sleep, stress, alcohol, diet and recovery – you gain context. And context is what turns awareness into prevention.
Technology has a major role to play here, not as a replacement for healthcare professionals, but as an extension of prevention into daily life. Wearables and real-world data can give individuals and clinicians earlier visibility of risk and better tools for long-term management.
However, technology alone is not enough. If hypertension is the world’s biggest killer, then it deserves the world’s biggest response. We need policymakers who treat it as the public health priority it is. We need healthcare systems that reward prevention, not just treatment. We need clinicians equipped with better tools and data. And we need collective action to close the awareness gap that leaves millions exposed.
If we make prevention the norm rather than the exception, we can reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and improve quality of life for millions. We already know enough to act. The real question is why we haven’t acted decisively enough yet.
