Almost three quarters of the over 50s population have high blood pressure - with half of those unaware of it.

That's according to new research emerging from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

The findings are being described as significantly worrying - as the illness can lead to stroke - heart failure and dementia.

Professor Roseanne Kenny is leading the research: "64% of the population of adults over 50 in Ireland have hypertension, high blood pressure, but almost half of those are unaware of this and furthermore among those who do know they have high blood pressure, over a third are not on sufficient treatment to control blood pressure."

She told Newstalk Breakfast we are not meeting our targets on medicating the problem: