| Blood from your heat to the organs is carried by the arteries. When the heart beats, it pushes blood through the arteries. In a person who has healthy arteries, the blood is able to flow through the arteries with insignificant resistance. But in people whose arteries have constricted, the arteries prevent the blood from streaming through them. The heart has to work harder to carry the blood to the organs, and that is when hypertension occurs. Hypertension puts a huge strain on your heart and brings on damage to the arteries, which escalates your risk for stroke, heart attack, coronary disease and kidney failure. Hypertension is frequently called the "silent killer", because you can have it without even knowing that you do. This is because the vast majority of people with high blood pressure have no symptoms.
In healthy adults blood pressure is 120/80 or lower. Hypertension is a reading 140/90 or higher.
Several factors raise your risk of hypertension. Some you can control, and some you cannot. The factors you cannot control are:
• Race. African Americans are proved to develop high blood pressure more often and earlier in life. Also, severe cases of hypertension are more often observed in African Americans.
• Age. Risk of high blood pressure increases as you age.
• Family history. If you have close relatives who have high blood pressure, you are at risk.
Other factors that put you at risk for hypertension include
• being overweight
• lack of regular exercise
• smoking
• eating too much salt.
Physicians strictly recommend that all adults aged 18 and older be examined for hypertension. If you have high blood pressure, here are some tips to help you lower it.
- Quit smoking. Nicotine makes your blood vessels constrict and your heart beat faster, which increases your blood pressure.
- Lose weight if you are corpulent.
- Exercise regularly for 30 minutes 5 or days a week.
- Select a healthy diet that includes plenty of fresh fruits and veggies and is low in concentrated fat.
- Limit your sodium and alcohol intake.
If life-style improvements alone do not lower your blood pressure, your doctor may furthermore prescribe antihypertensive medications to treat your hypertension. The goal is to reduce blood pressure to normal levels with medicines that are easy to administer and have few adverse side effects. |
