High Blood Pressure Is A Dangerous Condition For Which There Is Usually A Simple Answer
In recent years changes in diet and lifestyle in most western societies have caused a rise in the number of individuals suffering from high blood pressure.
High blood pressure (which is otherwise known as hypertension, or more correctly arterial hypertension) can be a dangerous condition which seldom carries any symptoms and that, if not detected and treated, can result in stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm or renal failure - any one of which represents a life-threatening condition.
So just what is high blood pressure and just what causes it?
The arteries within your body are constantly filled with blood which exerts a normal 'background' pressure against the walls of the arteries. As your heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around the body it forces this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure exerted on the artery walls during every beat of the heart. These two pressures are known as the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart is pumping) and the diastolic pressure (the reduced 'background' pressure).
Normal blood pressure differs from person to person but, on average, systolic pressure should be around 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure ought to be in the region of 80 mm Hg. This is usually shown as a pressure of 120/80.
When your blood pressure starts to rise and remains above 120/80 then you are said to be 'prehypertensive' and, despite the fact that this is not serious in itself, it is an indication that you could be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems which are linked with it. As soon as your blood pressure reaches, and remains at, a level of 140/90 or above you are suffering from hypertension and steps need to be taken to reduce your blood pressure.
So what makes you blood pressure rise and then stay at a high level?
Well, there are a number of factors at play here and to start there is a group over which you have little, if any, control. This group includes low weight at birth, a variety of genetic factors, some types of diabetes (particularly type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age our arteries have a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, producing a smaller cross-sectional area through which the blood can flow).
The next group of factors is much more controllable and includes a sedentary lifestyle, large levels of salt and saturated fats in your diet, excess weight, smoking, alcohol abuse, stress and working in certain occupations like flying or motorway maintenance.
The vast majority of these factors are treatable and, in many cases, a quite simple adjustment to your diet and the addition of a little exercise into your daily diary is all that is necessary to cure the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few, if any, symptoms, the majority of individuals do not know that they have hypertension in the first place.
So how do you go about solving the problem?
Well, fortunately, the answer to this question is quite simple. All you have to do is to pop into your doctor's office on a regular basis (about twice a year should do the trick) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure. The whole process is pain free, easy and fast and will provide you with peace of mind and can save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense down the road when you are forced to present yourself at his office once high blood pressure sets in.
If you are not all that keen on visiting your doctor then an excellent alternative now is to simply check your own blood pressure. A wide range of simple to operate and quite inexpensive blood pressure monitors are available nowadays, allowing you to check your health, and the health of of your entire family, in the comfort and privacy of your own home.