Do you have any control over whether you will develop high
blood pressure? Gaining an understanding of how it can
develop will help you to make the right choices in
preventing high blood pressure or lowering it once you have
the condition.
In most cases, a doctor may not be able to pinpoint the
exact cause of your high blood pressure. But several
factors are known to increase a patient's hypertension such
as obesity or heavy alcohol use which is considered to be
three or more a day. Family history of the disease, high
salt intake and simply getting older are generally
considered a direct cause in developing high blood pressure.
The high blood pressure symptoms are early pulsating
headaches behind the eyes, problems with vision, dizziness,
nausea and vomiting along with general nervousness.
Untreated symptoms can lead to chest pain, stroke, or
kidney failure, which are all life threatening conditions.
A number of environmental factors have been implicated in
the development of hypertension or high blood pressure.
Even a person's occupation, family size, excessive noise
exposure and crowding are suspected to be a contributing
cause, but sodium intake has received the greatest
attention. It is noted that approximately sixty percent of
the essential hypertension population is responsive to
sodium intake. This is in large part due to the use of salt
in preserving most manufactured foodstuffs through canned
products and in pre-packaged units readily available at
your supermarket.
Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas and its main
purpose is to regulate glucose levels in the body but it
can also have adverse effects. Insulin resistance or
hyperinsulinemia have been suggested as being responsible
for the increased arterial pressure in some patients with
hypertension or high blood pressure. This resistance is now
widely recognized as part of syndrome X, or the metabolic
syndrome.
Pulmonary hypertension involves the artery leading from the
right ventricle of the heart to the lungs. When plaque
builds up in this vital artery, the lungs cannot get the
necessary oxygen mixture into the flow of blood through the
body placing the patient at risk for pulmonary artery
necrosis or the dying of tissue.
Hypertension is one of the most common complex genetic
disorders with genetic heritability averaging at a thirty
percent risk factor. Studies with animals and humans
support the concept that inheritance is probably
multifactorial. A large number of different genetic defects
each have an elevated blood pressure as one of their
phenotypic expressions.
Only in a small minority of patients with elevated arterial
pressure can be identified as hypertension in specific
cause. These patients will have either an endocrine or
renal defect that if corrected could bring blood pressure
back to normal values. A simple explanation for renal
vascular hypertension is that decreased perfusion of renal
tissue due to stenosis of a main or branch artery activates
the rennin-angiotensin system.
Pregnancy is also a cause of high blood pressure. Although
few women of childbearing age have high blood pressure, up
to ten percent develop hypertension during pregnancy. While
usually benign, it may herald three complications:
pre-eclampsia, HELLP syndrome and eclampsia. This condition
can be controlled with medication. For this reason, it is
imperative to the health of mother and child that the
expectant mother's blood pressure be monitored by the
attending obstetrician.
Once the diagnosis of hypertension has been made it is
important to attempt to exclude or identify reversible
causes. Over ninety percent of adult high blood pressure
has no clear cause but it can occur in combination with
diabetes mellitus or Type 2 diabetes or obesity. Regular
checkup with your primary physician are important in the
early diagnosis of this crippling disease.
A sedentary lifestyle, stress, low potassium intake, low
calcium intake, low magnesium intake and resistance to
insulin may also cause your blood pressure to rise. By
adjusting your life style, salt intake, adding the needed
nutrients of these minerals to your diet and concentrating
on a regular exercise regime, a normal or slightly low
blood pressure reading can be achieved.
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Check out further information from Michael Jennings on
preventing hypertension, the "silent killer", and how to
monitor your blood pressure and living with hypertension on
a daily basis at ==> http://www.monitor-blood-pressure.com
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