The purpose of this study is to compare the blood pressure reducing property of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation with the blood pressure reducing drug felodipin.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for development of several vascular complications and is common world wide. Drug treatment is often necessary to achieve adequate blood pressure reduction but blood pressure control in studied countries is unsatisfactory low. Reasons for failure in treatment are several. Among others reasons intolerable side-effects may prevent successful treatment irrespective of the number of drugs.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) constitutes no risk of interaction with pharmacological agents and previous studies have reported blood pressure reduction.

Inclusion Criteria:

• clinical diagnosis of hypertension, untreated or currently treated with a maximum of one blood pressure (BP) lowering agent

Exclusion Criteria:

• systolic blood pressure >170 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure of >105 mmHg
• second- or third-degree atrioventricular block
• current use of opiates or other intoxicants
• neurological disorders (such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or peripheral neuropathy)
• need of treatment with TENS, regardless the reason