Hypertension Can Be A Dangerous Condition For Which There Is Frequently A Quite Simple Solution

By Author: Donald Saunders
Total Articles: 84
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Over the past few years alterations to the diet and lifestyle in the majority of western societies have produced an increase in the number of people with high blood pressure.

High blood pressure (which is otherwise referred to as hypertension, or more correctly arterial hypertension) is a dangerous condition that seldom shows any symptoms and that, if not detected and treated, can result in stroke, arterial aneurysm, heart attack, heart failure or renal failure � any one of which represents a life-threatening condition.

So precisely what is hypertension and precisely what causes it?

The arteries of the body are constantly filled with blood that produces a normal 'background' pressure against the artery walls. When the heart pumps newly oxygenated blood around the body it pushes this blood into the arteries which momentarily raises the pressure on the artery walls during each heartbeat. These two pressures are refrred to as the systolic pressure (the higher pumping pressure of the heart) and the diastolic pressure (the lower 'background' pressure).

Normal levels of blood pressure differ from ...
... person to person but, in general, systolic pressure ought to be around 120mm and diastolic pressure ought to be approximately 80mm. This is ordinarily written as a blood pressure of 120/80.

Whenever your blood pressure starts to rise and then remains above 120/80 then you are said to be 'prehypertensive' and, despite the fact that this is not serious in itself, it is an indication that you could be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems linked with it. If your blood pressure reaches, and remains at, a level of 140/90 or higher then you are suffering from hypertension and steps should be taken to reduce your blood pressure.

So just what makes you blood pressure rise and then remain at a high level?

Well, there are a variety of factors involved here and to start there is a group over which you have little, or no, control. This group includes low weight at birth, several genetic factors, some forms of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age our arteries tend to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, creating a smaller cross-sectional area through which the blood can flow).

The next group of factors is far more controllable and includes high quantities of salt and saturated fats in the diet, stress, alcohol abuse, smoking, excess weight, leading a sedentary lifestyle and working in specific occupations like motorway maintenance or flying.

The majority of these factors are of course treatable and, in many cases, a quite simple adjustment to your diet and the addition of some exercise into your daily plan is all that is necessary to reverse the problem. However, the difficulty is that, without any real symptoms, most people are not aware that they have hypertension to start with.

So how do you go about solving the problem?

Fortunately the answer to this particular question is fairly simple. All you have to do is to pop into your physician's office on a regular basis (for most of us about twice a year should do the trick) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure. The whole procedure is pain free, easy and quick and will give you peace of mind and may save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense down the road when you are forced to present yourself at his office once hypertension rears its ugly head.

If you are not too keen on visiting your doctor then a very good alternative today is to check your own blood pressure at home. A number of simple to operate and quite inexpensive monitors are now available, allowing you to check your own health, as well as the health of of your whole family, in the comfort and privacy of your own home.