You can lower blood pressure with one popular treat, experts suggest

High blood pressure is when the force blood exerts on the arteries in the body gets too high.

If left untreated, it can lead to serious heart complications and cause heart attacks and strokes. But its symptoms are often subtle.

It is very common, especially in older adults, and the chances of having it can be increased by various factors, including:

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• your age

• having close relatives with high blood pressure

• your ethnicity

• an unhealthy diet

• being overweight

• smoking

• drinking too much alcohol

• feeling stressed over a long period.

Symptoms of high blood pressure are rare, but they might include headaches, blurred vision or chest pain, reports Surrey Live.

The only real way to find out if you have it is to get your blood pressure checked, which involves inflating a band, or cuff, around your upper arm and measuring the pressure in your blood vessels.

Health experts say certain foods can help keep your blood pressure lower. And one of them is dark chocolate.

Tim Spector is scientific co-founder of science and nutrition firm Zoe and is also an internationally renowned researcher at King’s College London.

He explained that chocolate “comes from a plant that is fermented to give it great complexity, so it’s a mixture of fibre and protein, and lots of essential nutrients and defense chemicals called polyphenols.”

Flavanols are a polyphenol in chocolate, while theobromine is another natural compound in cocoa.

Research has linked both to improved blood vessel function, lower blood pressure, and a lower risk of heart disease.

Other potential benefits of eating dark chocolate include improving cholesterol levels, boosting brain function, consuming more anti-oxidants and improved skin.

However, you can't just grab any chocolate bar and expect it to lower your blood pressure. Most chocolate bars available in the supermarket are very high in sugar and other ultra-processed ingredients.

Even dark chocolate can also be full of sugar and UPF. So it's important to check what you're buying. Zoe recommends bars with a 70 per cent cocoa content as a starting point, as these will be lower in sugar.

The higher your cocoa percentage, the less sugar there will be. However, once you get to very high levels, like 90 per cent, the chocolate will be very bitter so it's best to build up to this.

But dark chocolate isn't necessarily a simple fix for high blood pressure. Dr Karin Ried from the University of Adelaide, Australia, said: "Flavanols have been shown to increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide, which promotes vasodilation and consequently may lower blood pressure.

"There have, however, been conflicting results as to the real-life effects of eating chocolate. We've found that consumption can significantly, albeit modestly, reduce blood pressure for people with high blood pressure but not for people with normal blood pressure."

How do I know if I have high blood pressure?

During a blood pressure test, blood pressure readings are given as two numbers, with the first number higher than the second (for example, 130/80).

If you're under 80 years of age, you're usually considered to have high blood pressure if your reading is either:

• 140/90 or higher when checked by a healthcare professional

• 135/85 or higher when checked at home

If you're aged 80 or over, you're usually considered to have high blood pressure if your reading is either:

• 150/90 or higher when checked by a healthcare professional

• 145/85 or higher when checked at home