| Hypertension is sometimes called the "silent killer", since a lot of men and women are not even aware they have it. This is because most people with hypertension have no symptoms.
Arteries carry blood around the body. When the heart beats, it thrusts blood through the arteries. In a person who has healthy arteries, the blood runs through the arteries with little resistance. But in a person whose arteries have constricted, the arteries prevent the blood from streaming through them. The heart has to work far harder to carry the blood where it needs to go, and this is how hypertension occurs. High blood pressure places a strain on your heart and leads to damage to the blood vessels. This increases your risk for stroke, heart attack, cardiac disease and kidney failure.
In a healthy adult 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 means you are gradually developing hypertension.
Some factors raise your risk of hypertension. Some you can be in control of, and some you cannot. The factors you cannot be in control of include:
- Race. African Americans are said to develop hypertension more often and at an earlier age. Moreover, severe cases of hypertension are more often observed in African Americans.
- Age. Risk of high blood pressure increases with age.
- Family history. If you have got close family members who have hypertension, you are at higher risk.
Other factors that place you at risk for hypertension are
• being overweight
• lack of physical exercise
• using tobacco products
• consuming too much salt.
General practitioners recommend that all grownups aged 18 and older be screened for hypertension. If you have hypertension, here are some tips to help you reduce it.
- Quit smoking. Nicotine makes your blood vessels constrict and your heart beat quicker, which raises your blood pressure.
- Lose extra weight if you are corpulent.
- Be more active. Exercise at a moderate intensity for half an hour, 5 or more days a week.
- Choose a healthy well-balanced diet high in vitamins and low in saturated fat.
- Cut down on alcohol and sodium.
If lifestyle alterations alone do not lower your blood pressure, your physician may furthermore prescribe antihypertensive medications to treat your high blood pressure. But note: even if are on medication, making some of the recommended lifestyle changes can help lower the amount of medicines you take. |
