Background: Essential hypertension shows familial predisposition. It is detectable at an early age in descendants of hypertensive parents following sympathetic stimulation. Aims and objectives: The present study was designed to examine the response in the blood pressure to the cold pressor test in medical students of hypertensive parents and to compare it with age-matched controls of medical students of normotensive parents. Material and Methods: Cold pressor test was performed in the study and control groups. First basal blood pressure was recorded and afterwards subjects were asked to dip left arm in the cold water (temperature at 2-40 C) for 2 minutes and blood pressure was recorded from the right arm in sitting position. Blood pressure was again recorded 5 minutes after hand was taken out of the cold water. Results and conclusions: Results showed that basal systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher (p __ampersandsignlt;0.001) in students of hypertensive parents as compared to students of normotensive parents. During cold pressor test, rise in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was significantly higher (p__ampersandsignlt;0.001) in the study group of hypertensive parents. Children of hypertensive parents require regular monitoring of blood pressure for an early detection of hypertension as it is well known that lifestyle and dietary modifications can be helpful in prevention of, future hypertension related issues.