High Blood Pressure
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High blood pressure is known to be a very common disorder in people. Let us focus on what is high blood pressure and what are its important aspects.
As we all know our heart pumps blood into the arteries with enough force, so that the blood can reach each organ of the body. So we can say that blood pressure is the pressure of the blood on the walls of the arteries.
This pressure becomes very high as its leaves the heart all the way through the aorta and after that slowly decreases as it enters smaller blood vessels like capillaries. In this respect, high blood pressure is known to be the silent killer as it does not show any initial symptoms, but can lead to long-term disease complications.
Important Aspects of High Blood Pressure
- Many people are unknown of the fact that they have high blood pressure
- If high blood pressure is kept untreated, this can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease, and aortic aneurysms.
- In this way, high blood pressure is the second most common medical condition for consulting a doctor. Let us focus on the readings of normal blood pressure and high blood pressure according to the recommendations of The American Heart Association.
- Normal blood pressure is known to be less than 120/80 mmHg
- Pre-hypertension is defined as pressure at 120-139/ 80-89 mmHg
- High blood pressure at stage 1 is known to have 140-159/90-99 mmHg
- High blood pressure at stage 2 is known to be higher than 160/100 mmHg
Factors affecting High Blood Pressure
There are many factors that can affect blood pressure. They are mentioned as below:
- The condition of kidneys, nervous system, and also blood vessels
- The levels of hormones in the body
- Quantity of water and salt one has in the body
With age, your blood pressure may reach to higher level as blood vessels become stiffer with increase in age. High blood pressure can result into increased chance of having a heart failure, stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, and early death.
Risk Factors of High Blood Pressure
- Having a family history
- African American
- Overweight
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Stress or anxiety
- Eating too much salt
High blood pressure has the ability to cause other medical conditions or secondary hypertension. Secondary hypertension can take place due to the following reasons:
- Atherosclerosis
- Periarteritis nodosa
- Alcohol abuse
- Chronic kidney disease
- Endocrine disorder
- Thyroid disorders
- Cushing syndrome
- Coarctation of the aorta
- Diabetes
Symptoms of High Blood Pressure
Symptoms of high blood pressure may include:
- Confusion
- Buzzing
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Irregular heartbeat
- Nosebleed
- Vision changes
If in case you have symptoms like this, do visit your doctor as soon as possible because these are the signs of a dangerously high blood pressure or malignant hypertension.
Treatment of High Blood Pressure
The treatment is designed so as to reduce the blood pressure and other risks of complications. There are many medicines that can be used as a drug of high blood pressure. These include:
- Alpha blockers
- Beta blockers
- Calcium channel blockers
- Central alpha agonists
- Diuretics
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors
- Angiotensin receptor blockers
- Renin inhibitors
- Vasodilators
In addition to these medicines, following points will help you to control your blood pressure.
- Take a healthy diet which includes potassium, fiber, etc.
- Drink plenty of water
- Exercise regularly
- Quit smoking
- Limit your alcohol intake
- Limit the of sodium (salt) in your diet
- Reduce stress
- Stay at a healthy body weight
Your doctor can help you in deciding a proper program for stopping smoking, losing weight, and exercising. Regularly keep track of your blood pressure.
In this way, we can conclude that maintaining blood pressure is very important, so as to avoid the complications happening due to high blood pressure.