High blood pressure is the most diagnosed condition in the US today and it is now estimated that it affects almost 72 million US citizens, including 1 out of every 3 adults. However, while we talk about high blood pressure, were you aware that there are actually two different forms of high blood pressure?
The vast majority of people suffer from what is officially known as primary or essential high blood pressure which usually has few, or no, symptoms and more often than not develops slowly over many years. A smaller, but nevertheless still significant, number of people suffer from secondary high blood pressure which arises out of an underlying medical condition and may sometimes present with a very rapid onset.
The medical conditions that may produce secondary high blood pressure are many and varied but here are a few of the more common causes:
Thyroid Problems. Excess or inadequate hormone production from the thyroid gland, seen in conditions like hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, can, directly or indirectly, lead to a rise in blood pressure.
Obesity. Rising weight is frequently accompanied by an increase in heart rate, as the heart comes under pressure to pump an increasing volume of blood around the body, and a consequently raised pressure on the walls of the arteries.
Sleep Apnea. The frequent interruption to your breathing caused by sleep apnea results in oxygen deprivation which causes damage to the lining of the blood vessels and affects the elasticity necessary in these vessels to control blood pressure.
Dietary Supplements. Many commonly available dietary supplements, like St John's wort and ginseng, are capable of producing high blood pressure.
Kidney Problems. Your kidneys are composed of millions of tiny blood vessels and other structures that are designed to filter waste products out of the blood. When this filtering process is upset, such as in the case of polycystic kidney disease or hydronephrosis, one result is secondary high blood pressure.
This list is not of course exhaustive and could also have included such things as prescription and over-the-counter medicines, preeclampsia, diabetes, Cushing's disease and more.
High blood pressure, whether it is primary or secondary, is a serious medical problem that can result in the development of other life-threatening conditions like heart disease, cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.
High blood pressure (which is otherwise referred to as hypertension, or more accurately arterial hypertension) can be a serious condition which rarely shows any symptoms and which, if left undetected and untreated, can cause stroke, arterial aneurysm, heart failure, heart attack or renal failure ? any one of which represents a serious life-threatening condition.
So precisely what is high blood pressure and precisely what causes it?
The arteries of your body are continuously filled with blood which produces a normal 'background' pressure against the artery walls. As the heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around the body it pushes this blood into the arteries momentarily raising the pressure on the artery walls with each heartbeat. These two pressures are known as the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart pumps) and the diastolic pressure (the reduced normal or 'background' pressure).
Normal levels of blood pressure vary from individual to individual but, generally, systolic pressure ought to be around 120mm and diastolic pressure ought to be about 80mm. This is generally shown as a blood pressure of 120/80.
When your blood pressure starts to rise and remains above 120/80 then you are described as being 'prehypertensive' and, although this is not serious in itself, it is a sign that you may be at risk of developing hypertension and all of the problems which are linked with it. If your blood pressure reaches, and maintains, a level of 140/90 or higher you are said to be suffering from hypertension and steps need to be taken to reduce your blood pressure.
But just what makes you blood pressure rise and stay elevated?
Well, there are various factors involved here and to start there is a group over which you have little, if any, control. This group of factors includes low weight at birth, various genetic factors, certain forms of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (as we grow older our arteries display a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, creating a reduced cross-sectional area for the blood to flow through).
The next group of factors is far more within your control and includes stress, high quantities of salt and saturated fats in the diet, being overweight, leading a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, alcohol abuse and employment in specific occupations such as motorway maintenance or flying.
Most of these factors are of course treatable and, in most cases, a quite simple change in your diet and the addition of a little exercise into your daily diary is all that is needed to cure the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few symptoms, most people do not know that they are suffering from high blood pressure in the first place.
So how do you solve the problem?
Fortunately the answer to this question is fairly simple. All you have to do is to pop into your doctor's office on a regular basis (for most of us a couple of times a year will do the trick) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure for you. The whole procedure is pain free, simple and fast and will provide you with peace of mind and possibly save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense down the road when you are forced to visit his office once high blood pressure rears its ugly head.
If you are not too keen on visiting your doctor then a very good alternative today is to simply check your own blood pressure at home. A wide range of easy to operate and relatively inexpensive monitors are available now, allowing you to maintain a check on your health, and the health of of your whole family, in the comfort and privacy of your own home.
Both Don Saunders & Donald Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Don Saunders has sinced written about articles on various topics from Types of Cancer, Sleep Apnea and K 15. TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on a variety of topics including the