Persistently high blood pressure is a common problem and it is important to treat it when it occurs because it significantly increases the risk of a stroke.

There are times when everyone’s blood pressure is high. Your blood pressure fluctuates throughout the day, being lowest during sleep then rising on getting up, and reaching its higher value sometime mid­ morning. On top of your normal values are times of stress, nervousness, excitement and physical activity – all of which raise your blood pressure.

Although people’s blood pressure has a range of values that are acceptable, doctors will consider 120/80 mmHg as a ‘normal’ reading. The first number of the reading relates to the blood pressure when the heart muscle contracts – systole – and the second number relates to pressure during its relaxation phase – diastole.

After boy reaches puberty, his testes create sperm at a rate of approximately 125 million sperm a day. These gather in the testes and then move on to the coiled tubular system known as the epidemiologist, where they mature. The epidemiologist drains first into the vas deference and from there into the ejaculatory ducts. During sexual activity, these ducts contract and push sperm through the urethra during the process of ejaculation.

Sperm are carried in fluid produced by the seminal vesicles and the prostate gland. This fluid, which is known as semen, is rich in nutrients and provides an effective medium within which sperm can stay alive. For about 20 minutes after ejaculation, the sperm hardly move at all, remaining in the gel-like substance. After this, the semen liquefies, and the sperm swim towards their ultimate goal – a female ovum (egg). It is here that fertilization takes place.

Other elements of the male reproductive system are related to the penis and include the urethra, the foreskin and the glans penis. The urethra is the tube through which semen is ejaculated during sexual activity and it is also the tube through which urine passes. The glans penis is the conical swelling at the tip of the penis. In uncircumcised men, the glans is enclosed by the foreskin, which is attached at the neck of the penis.

After about three years of age, the foreskin, or prepuce, usually becomes retractable so that the glans may be exposed up until this time it sticks to the glans. The inside of the foreskin is covered with sebaceous glands that secrete a substance known as smegma, and this should he removed by regular, careful cleaning of the penis. It is hormonal changes in the male and female bodies during puberty that prepares thorn for their ultimate purpose: sexual activity and reproduction.