Why hypertension is a silent killer
You may know it as hypertension or high blood pressure. But another name for this dangerous condition might as well be “silent killer.” Here's why
By Lisa Bendall
It’s silent because you may not realize it’s stalking you. “Most often it does not have symptoms,” says Dr. Richard Ward, a family physician with Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network. If you aren’t checking your blood pressure regularly, there’s no sure way to know if it’s within a healthy range. As for “killer,” that may sound melodramatic. But the damage this condition does to your body is no act.
The murder plot
When you have hypertension, it means that as your blood is being pumped by your heart, it’s putting too much force against the walls of your arteries – enough force to lead to health problems. If your arteries are narrow or stiffen with age, or if your body carries a lot of water or salt, your blood pressure becomes higher.
“You can think of it as putting excessive pressures on the pipes,” Dr. Ward says. “The risk of those pipes bursting is the biggest effect.”
Different parts of your body will suffer in different ways. Your heart has to work harder when your blood pressure is high. “The pump itself is under increasing amounts of stresses by pushing,” says Dr. Ward. That extra effort can lead to thickening of the heart muscle, making it more difficult for this organ to do its job. Heart failure can follow. If high blood pressure causes your arteries to harden, the risk of heart attack rises.
Your brain is also in peril when your blood pressure goes up. Hypertension is the top trigger for stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts and bleeds, or a blood clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain. Stroke can cause death, or it can cause brain damage and lifelong disability.
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High blood pressure can also give you brain fog – trouble learning, remembering and understanding. And increasing evidence is showing a link between blood vessel disease and dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. “If there’s inefficiency in the blood getting to the brain, it only makes sense that brain health would be compromised,” Dr. Ward notes.
Your kidneys, too, can deteriorate when your blood pressure rises. The blood vessels in these organs may become weak or narrow, and your kidneys become less effective at their job of filtering out wastes and fluids from your body. Since too much water in your body will in turn raise your blood pressure, it’s kind of a lose-lose situation. And it explains why hypertension is one of the most common reasons for kidney failure.
The collateral damage
Even your eyes aren’t immune to the effects of high blood pressure. There are tiny blood vessels here too, and when they’re damaged or blocked, the result is blurred, distorted or lost vision.
Scared straight yet? Both men and women with high blood pressure can experience sexual dysfunction because of compromised blood flow to your precious parts. You’re also at greater risk of bone loss and sleep apnea. These problems may not out-and-out kill you, but they cover a lot of day-to-day functions that you likely don’t want to be without.
Your detective work
To get the best blood pressure reading, you shouldn’t be under the weather, fresh from a cigarette break or burning to go to the bathroom. Otherwise, the measurement will be affected. “Blood pressures naturally do fluctuate,” says Dr. Ward. “Feeling unwell or having a really stressful day is the wrong time to take your blood pressure, and may not reflect the accuracy of the reading.”
Relax, keep both feet on the ground, make sure your arm is fully supported, and try not to talk for a few minutes before you check your blood pressure. If your reading is 120/80 or below, you have nothing to worry about. But if it’s 140/90 or higher, or 130/80 if you have diabetes, it’s important that you talk to your doctor about treatment options. You should be measuring your blood pressure at least every three to six months if you’re in a known high-risk group (or once a year if you’re low risk).
Hypertension may be a silent killer. But if you never let it sneak up on you, you’re much less likely to become another one of its victims.
Research on risk factors of hypertension has been made on the large scale over the past several decades. Medical scientists have paid attention to such issues as systolic blood pressure, risk causing factors, diastolic blood pressure, consequences of hypertension and treatment methods. In this article, you will get a detailed idea on what exactly hypertension is, so that you can give considerable attention to such problem.
Risk factors are defined as certain behaviors or condition types that increase the risk of acquiring a disease. Hypertension is a known as the risk factor for many disorders that can be dementia, stroke, poor eyesight, and kidney failures. You must be aware of what particularly contributes to the symptoms that you are experiencing.
Causes of Hypertension
In most of the people, the system regulating blood pressure goes wrong: arterioles throughout the body stay constricted that drive up the pressure in the large blood vessels. Sustained high blood pressure more than 140/90 mm Hg as per the experts is known as hypertension. Nearly 90 percent of all people with high blood pressure have hypertension that has no identifiable cause. In the remaining 10 percent of cases, the high blood pressure can be because of diabetes, kidney disease, or another underlying disorder.
High blood pressure if left untreated can lead to strokes occurring at a rate of a half a million a year in the United States. As a result of hypertension, the heart, which has to work harder, becomes enlarged and less efficient.
People who are Likely to Get Hypertension
People believe that high blood pressure is the result of extreme tension or nervousness. In reality, there is no hypertensive personality. Stress makes your blood pressure rise, but later it returns to normal once your problem gets over. People with hypertension have high readings even if they don�t do anything. Blood pressure tends to rise as a person gets older, but aging is not a primary factor.
Risk Factors of Hypertension
Increasing Age: The high blood pressure risk increases according to your age. Through early middle age, high blood pressure is common in men; women are likely to get high blood pressure after menopause.
Exercise: A low exercise lifestyle leads to a weak heart, obesity and poor exercise tolerance. All of which have been implicated in the cause of high blood pressure.
Race: High blood pressure is common among blacks, often emerging at an early age than it does among whites. Serious difficulties like stroke and heart attack are more common in Blacks. Studies have been made on whether the risk is equivalent between African Americans and people of African heritage who have never left the African continent.
Smoking: Smoking is number 1 risk factor over which you must have control. Smoking can be a powerful risk factor for many different diseases that doctors are encouraged to ask every patient who smokes if they would like to quit. To quit smoking is the best thing you can do for your health.
Family history: High blood pressure usually runs in families.
Diet: While there is a proof that certain things like salt can worsen high blood pressure in most of the individuals, the main impact that diet plays an important role in high blood pressure risk which is a big factor in how much you weigh.
Being Obese: You have to supply more oxygen and nutrients to tissues if you are obese. As the volume of blood circulated through your vessels of blood increases, the pressure on your artery walls also increases.
Medicines: Certain medicines can worsen high blood pressure, like a wide variety of things like cocaine, amphetamines and crack.
There are many risk factors for hypertension for which you can't do anything like heredity, race or aging, but you can bring several lifestyle changes to lower your blood pressure. Some can be simple, but others take a commitment on your part to change your life which you may not want to change. Implement some of the suggestions given by doctors and you'll have a better chance to avoid hypertension and the resulting complications.