High Blood Pressure Can Be An Extremely Dangerous Condition For Which There Is Frequently A Quite Simple Answer


In the last few years changes in lifestyle and diet in most western societies have produced a growth in the number of individuals with high blood pressure.

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

So exactly what is hypertension and precisely what causes it?

The arteries of your body are constantly filled with blood that provides a normal 'background' pressure on the walls of the arteries. As the heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around your body it forces this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure exerted on the artery walls with each heartbeat. These two pressures are referred to as the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart pumps) and the diastolic pressure (the lesser 'background' pressure).

Normal levels of blood pressure differ from one person to the next but, usually, systolic pressure should be about 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure should be approximately 80 mm Hg. This is usually expressed as a pressure of 120/80.

When your blood pressure begins to rise and stays above 120/80 then you are said to be 'prehypertensive' and, while this is not in itself serious, it is a sign that you might be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems which are associated with it. Once your blood pressure rises to, and remains at, a level of 140/90 or above you are suffering from hypertension and steps should be taken to lower your blood pressure.

So just what causes your blood pressure to rise and stay elevated?

Well, there are a variety of factors at play here and to begin there is a group over which you have little, if any, control. This group includes a low birth weight, a number of genetic factors, some types of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (as we grow older the arteries have a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, resulting in a smaller cross-sectional area for the blood to flow through).

The next group of factors is much more within your control and includes a sedentary lifestyle, high quantities of salt and saturated fats in the diet, excess weight, smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, stress and employment in certain occupations such as flying or motorway maintenance.

Most of these factors are treatable and, in many cases, a quite simple change in your eating habits and the addition of a bit of exercise into your daily routine is all that is necessary to resolve the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few, or no, symptoms, most individuals do not know that they have hypertension to start with.

So how do you solve the problem?

Thankfully the answer to this particular question is very simple. All you need to do is to drop by your doctor's office on a regular basis (a couple of times a year will be sufficient) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure. The whole process is pain free, easy and fast and will provide you with peace of mind and can save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense later on when you are forced to visit his office once high blood pressure has set in.

If you are not all that keen on calling in to see your doctor then one excellent alternative now is to monitor your own blood pressure. A wide range of simple to operate and reasonably inexpensive blood pressure monitors are available today, allowing you to maintain a check on your health, as well as that of your entire family, in the comfort and privacy of your own home.