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High Blood Pressure Is A Dangerous Condition Which Often Has A Simple Solution
Over the past few years alterations to the lifestyle and diet in the majority of western countries have led to a growth in the number of individuals with high blood pressure.
High blood pressure (otherwise known as hypertension, or
more correctly arterial hypertension) is a serious condition which seldom carries any symptoms and which, if left undetected and untreated, can result in stroke, arterial aneurysm, heart attack, heart failure or renal failure any one of which is a life-threatening condition.
So precisely what is hypertension and precisely what causes it?
The arteries within the body are continuously filled with blood which provides a normal 'background' pressure
on the artery walls. As your heart pumps newly oxygenated blood around your body it forces this blood into the arteries briefly raising the pressure exerted on the artery walls during every beat of the heart. These two pressures are known as the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart is pumping) and the diastolic pressure (the lesser normal or 'background' pressure).
Normal blood pressure varies from person to person but, generally, systolic pressure
should be around 120mm and diastolic pressure should be approximately 80mm. This is ordinarily written as a blood pressure of 120/80.
Whenever your blood pressure starts to rise and then stays at a level above 120/80 then you are described as being 'prehypertensive' and, while this is not in itself serious, it is a sign that you could be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems associated with it. If your blood pressure reaches, and remains at, a level of 140/90 or above then you are said to be suffering from hypertension and action ought to be taken to reduce your blood pressure.
But what causes your blood pressure to rise and then stay elevated?
Well, there are numerous factors at play here and to begib there is a group over which you have little, if any, control. This group of factors includes a low birth weight, a number of genetic factors, certain types of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age the arteries have a tendency to
become fibrous and lose their elasticity, resulting in a reduced cross-sectional area for the blood to flow through).
The next group of factors is far more controllable and includes smoking, high quantities of salt and saturated fats in your diet, stress, alcohol abuse, being overweight, a sedentary lifestyle and working in specific occupations like motorway maintenance or flying.
Most of these factors are treatable and, in many cases, a simple change in your diet and the addition of a little exercise into your daily diary is all that is needed to solve the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few symptoms, the vast majority of individuals do not know that they are suffering from hypertension to start with.
So how do you go about solving the problem?
Fortunately the answer to this particular question is quite simple. All you need to do is to pop into your doctor's office regularly (for most of us a couple of times a year will do the trick) and ask him/her to check your blood pressure. The process is painless, simple and fast and will provide you with peace of mind and might save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense later on when you are forced to call in at his office once high blood pressure rears its ugly head.
If you are not all that keen on visiting your doctor then an excellent alternative now is to monitor your own blood pressure at home. A large selection of simple to operate and quite inexpensive monitors are now available, allowing you to maintain a check on your health, as well as the health of of your entire family, in the privacy and comfort of your own home.
Summary
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