High Blood Pressure – What You Must Know About It
High blood pressure and hypertension are synonymous with each other. Experts to common people use these two terms in place of each other. High blood pressure is a common health condition. In this state, the blood pressure or force against your artery walls is very high. And due to this, you have heart diseases and strokes. As a health-conscious person, you can keep a close watch on your heart health through regular urine tests, blood tests, and a sugar test in Greater Noida or a full body checkup. Before you go for such a test, you should have a brief idea about high blood pressure.
Symptoms of high blood pressure
Many people with hypertension have no significant signs or symptoms even if their blood reading is at a dangerously high level. Some people might have high blood pressure symptoms like:
- Headaches
- Shortness of breath
- Nosebleeds
- Fainting
- Heart palpitations
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Blurry vision
- Loss of consciousness or injury from falling
- Organ damage in rare or serious cases
What causes you to have hypertension?
High blood pressure develops with time. There is no specific single cause that makes a person have such a health condition. However, your lifestyle, diet, etc. can trigger your risk for hypertension. Here are possible causes and risk factors:
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Adrenal gland tumours
- Kidney disease
- Certain defects such as congenital in blood vessels
- Thyroid problems
- Certain medications like birth control pills, decongestants, and cold remedies,
- Illegal drugs, such as amphetamines and cocaine
- Age
- Race
- Family history
- Obesity
- Highly comfortable life
- Intake of alcoholic beverage
- Tobacco products and smoking
- Stress
What are the complications of high blood pressure?
You may have serious health issues due to the very high pressure on your artery walls. The longer you ignore it the more problems you will face to control your hypertension. Some of the complications you might have are as follows:
- Heart stroke or attack
- Heart failure
- Metabolic syndrome
- Dementia
- Aneurysm
- Narrowed or weakened blood vessels in your kidney
- Thickened, torn, or narrowed blood vessels in the eyes
How to know if you have hypertension?
There is a single way to find out whether you have high blood pressure or not. To know it, you need to consult a healthcare professional and request him/her to measure your blood pressure. Further, you can go for an SMBP (self-measured blood pressure) monitoring after talking to your doctor. You have hypertension when your blood pressure is above 120/80 mm Hg. After interacting with you, your doctor may prescribe the following tests:
- Ambulatory monitoring
- Urine and blood tests
- ECG or EKG
High blood pressure treatment
After the diagnosis, your doctor will decide what treatment will be effective for you. Your hypertension treatment will be a mix of diet, medicines, and lifestyle changes. The doctor can ask you to:
- Take the prescribed medicines based on your health conditions and age with a treatment
- goal of bringing your blood pressure lower than 130/80 mm Hg. The medications could be calcium channel broker, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and diuretics
- Include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, poultry, and low-fat dairy products in your diet
- Lower salt intake
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Avoid or lower alcoholic beverages and quit smoking
- Practice deep breathing
- Be physically active and exercise for at least 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes a day
- Stay away from stress and meditate regularly
Conclusion
Being synonymous with hypertension, high blood pressure is a salient killer. Whenever you notice a little increase in your blood pressure, you should take it seriously and start monitoring it. From lifestyle changes to regular health check-ups, you should do whatever you can to prevent yourself from it. Your doctor will help you diagnose and treat it well in mild to moderate cases. And you will have a better life.
