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[S450]Sign Of High Blood Pressure

by Eddie Lamb, Edd

By the time you experience its deadly effects, it may be too late. Many people never realize they have hypertension until that first stroke or heart attack. For this reason, hypertension is called 'the silent killer' because there may be no sign of high blood pressure (sometimes referred to as BP or HBP in this article) until it reaches a life-threatening stage. Every time you visit your doctor, a nurse checks your blood pressure. There are even machines in many pharmacies that will carry out this check. African Americans of both genders suffer from hypertension more than any other ethnic group, but often have no signs of high blood pressure.

How Will I Know if I Have Hypertension?

First, buy a home BP kit. This simple, inexpensive and portable equipment, called a 'sphygmomanometer' contains a BP 'cuff' and a measuring device for determining your diastolic and systolic blood pressure. Since normal adult readings should be about 120/80, you should primarily be concerned with the 'top' number, the systolic pressure. Using your portable kit, if your systolic pressure rises above 135 and hovers there for a week, see your physician immediately! It takes only five minutes of your time; make it a part of your morning routine.

Since there are few overt signs of HBP, it wears 'sneakers.' Gradually increasing, hypertension is rarely noticed until it has reached an extremely severe stage. Fortunately, other medical conditions serve as a sign of high blood pressure. If you begin to experience unusually frequent headaches, nosebleeds, vertigo (dizziness), and tinnitus (constant ringing of the ears), these could very well be signs of the ailment which your physician can determine by using a sphygmomanometer.

Other medical conditions may be good indicators. Fairly sure give-aways include a rare tumor called 'pheochromocytoma' that originates in the adrenal gland. Thus tumor causes an over-production of very powerful hormones that create hypertension and other symptoms. If you experience sudden bouts of sweating, heart palpitations and headaches, this may be caused by a pheochromocytoma tumor and also a sign of HBP.

Severe headache resulting from a stroke that's due to the rupture of an artery in your brain is a sign of high blood pressure that remained hidden until the stroke has already occurred. This type of stroke that results from hypertension is called a 'subarachnoid' or cerebral hemorrhage.

Chest pain that occurs from a rupture of a 'thoracic aortic aneurysm' or back pain from and 'abdominal aortic aneurysm' are other complications associated with hypertension.

A pregnant woman must be carefully monitored by her obstetrician for signs of high blood pressure. A condition called 'preeclampsia' is characterized by an increase in BP and other symptoms. Preeclampsia endangers the life of the mother and the unborn child, causing convulsions, coma, and death of the mother and/or the child. If a physician suspects that this deadly condition exists in a pregnant woman, she should be taking medication for hypertension until the child is safely born.

Do you worry that sweating is a sign of high blood pressure? In most cases the symptoms of high blood pressure, also known as hypertenstion, can be difficult to see. It's often called the ?silent killer? because it usually has NO symptoms. The only way to really know whether you have high blood pressure or not is to go to your doctor and have your blood pressure checked. In some cases the symptoms of high blood pressure go unnoticed because they can be considered part of everyday life. Some symptoms that you may associate with possible high blood pressure are continued fatigue, headaches, and a ringing in your ears known as tinnitus. But in most cases there are very few symptoms of high blood pressure, and if your doctor doesn't look for it, he or she may not find it.

The scary thing about any symptoms of high blood pressure is that they usually do not show until it is too late to do anything about them. When high blood pressure reaches high rates it is referred to as accelerated hypertension. Even at this stage symptoms may not show until it starts shutting down internal organs and the patient begins to enter a dangerous stage of the disease. If left untreated, high blood pressure can begin to affect the brain and even start causing pressure within your skull, which can be fatal.

If high blood pressure runs in your family or if you have any feeling that you may have blood pressure, you should see your doctor immediately. The sooner the condition is diagnosed, the better. Your doctor will do a simple test and from there you can map out a plan to combat this condition.

For more helpful information about the signs and treatments for high blood pressure please visit http://helpforhighbloodpressure.com.

Article Source : Blood Pressure Cuff

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Both Eddie Lamb & Patricia Jordan 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.

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