This new account of the pathogenesis of essential hypertension (EH) represents a detailed analysis of the main components of the circulatory control system. The latter's properties resemble those of man-made adaptive control systems in which regulatory parameters are altered when operating conditions exceed certain limits, often through neural mechanisms. Inheritance of EH depends on both genes and environment. The high blood pressure (BP) genes have not yet been definitively identified, whilst the main environmental causes are mental stress, high dietary salt intake and obesity. EH occurs as.