| Hypertension is very often called the "silent killer", as you can have it without even knowing that you do. This is because the majority of people with high blood pressure have no symptoms.
Arteries carry blood around the body. When your heart beats, it pushes blood through the arteries. In people who have healthy arteries, the blood streams through the arteries with little resistance. But in a person whose arteries have narrowed, the arteries resist the blood streaming through them. The heart has to work harder to carry the blood to the organs, and that is when hypertension occurs. High blood pressure puts a huge strain on your heart and impairs the blood vessels. This raises your risk for stroke, heart attack, coronary disease and kidney failure.
Two measurements make up blood pressure. The first one is known as systolic, and determines the peak blood pressure when your heart is sending blood out into the arteries. The second number is known as diastolic, which is the pressure when your heart is relaxing between beats. When you blood pressure is taken, the systolic pressure is measured first, and the diastolic pressure is measured second.
In a healthy grownup blood pressure is 120/80 or lower. High blood pressure is a reading 140/90 or higher. If your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 140/90, you have something called prehypertension. This signals you are on your way to having hypertension.
A few factors raise your risk of hypertension. Some you can be in control of, and some you cannot. The factors you cannot control are:
• Race. African Americans are proved to develop high blood pressure more often and at an earlier age. Besides, hypertension in African Americans tends to be more severe.
• Age. Risk of hypertension increases as you age.
• Genetically determined hypertension. If you have close family members who have high blood pressure, you are at risk.
Other factors that put you at risk for high blood pressure are obesity, lack of physical exercise, heavy smoking, eating too much salt.
General practitioners recommend that all grownups aged 18 and older be examined for high blood pressure. If you have hypertension, here are some tips to help you lower it.
• Do not smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products. Nicotine makes your blood vessels constrict and your heart beat faster, which increases your blood pressure.
• Lose weight if you are corpulent.
• Do physical exercises regularly for half an hour 5 or days a week.
• Choose a healthy diet high in vitamins and low in saturated fat.
• Limit your sodium and alcohol intake.
If life-style changes alone do not reduce your blood pressure, your general practitioner may besides prescribe antihypertensive drugs to treat your high blood pressure. But remember: even if are on medication, making some of the recommended lifestyle alterations can help reduce the amount of medications you take. |
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