The objective of the research was to assess how short-term cold exposure affects cardiovascular function of middle-aged untreated hypertensive and normotensive men. The hypotheses of the study were: a) cold exposure induces adverse changes in cardiovascular function, such as higher blood pressure and cardiac workload and b) hypertensive men demonstrate an aggravated response to cold exposure and the recovery of the cardiovascular system to baseline is delayed compared to normotensive subjects.