Summary: Hypertension is the single most important risk factor for premature deaths in the world. There is a linear relationship between hypertension and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, heart failure, and others such as renal failure. In the Polish population, approximately 10 million people suffer from hypertension, which is a significant clinical problem. The main burden of diagnosis and treatment lies with primary care physicians. Hypertension is detected when the mean pressure values measured during at least two measurements during at least two different medical visits are higher than or equal to 140 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure and/or 90 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure. Cabinet measurements should be confirmed using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring or home blood pressure measurements. The therapy of hypertension is dependent on cardiovascular risk factors, subclinical organ damage, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, and diabetic-related disorders. At the heart of every therapy for hypertension lies lifestyle change: increased physical activity, reduction of excessive body weight, limitation of salt and alcohol intake, smoking cessation. The DASH diet is widely used in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. There are five groups of antihypertensive drugs: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, calcium channel blockers, b-blockers and diuretics. These medicines can be used as monotherapy or in drug combinations. There is a strong trend towards the use of long-acting antihypertensive drugs in one tablet. It increases the level of patient satisfaction, compliance and treatment effectiveness.