Hypertension / High Blood Pressure Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
Hypertension means the chronic elevation of blood pressure in the arteries. The heart pumps blood to the other organs of the body with every heart beat through the arteries.
High blood pressure (also known as hypertension) is a dangerous and deadly disease. Many people each year die from this disease because they never knew they were affected by it. High blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump the blood and this in turn leads to organ damage and the onset of many illnesses like: heart attack, stroke, heart failure, aneurysm, and renal failure.
Hypertension is considered to be present when a patient's systolic blood pressure is consistently 140 mmHg or greater, and/or their diastolic blood pressure is consistently 90 mmHg or greater. This is also known as 140/90 when the nurse or doctor tells you what your blood pressure is during a checkup.
Hypertension / High Blood Pressure Causes
The major cause is due to fast paced lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits. Hypertension causes damage to the vital organs of the body and the preventive factor would be to be aware of hypertension causes and take preventive measures.
The causes of hypertension are often complicated, numerous and far reaching. In some medically straightforward cases the cause of hypertension is some other illness or disease. For example, diabetes, kidney disease and certain cancerous tumors will directly cause hypertension. But in the majority of cases, hypertension is caused by a half dozen or so different factors. Heredity, salt consumption, obesity and how much caffeine and alcohol you consume are very common contributing factors to hypertension. Even stress at work, at home, your age, race, occupation and how much noise you are exposed to contribute to increasing your blood pressure. But perhaps the most pervasive contributing factor to hypertension in our world today is high cholesterol.
Hypertension / High Blood Pressure Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of hypertension, or high blood pressure as it is also known as, include blood pressure readings that are consistently more than 140/90. Pre-hypertension is present when your blood pressure readings are consistently between 120-139/80-89. Although this does not mean you have hypertension, it is a good indicator that you will most likely develop high blood pressure in the future.
Some of the symptoms of hypertension can include:
- headaches
- being tired all the time
- blurred vision
- nosebleeds
- ringing in the ears
- chest pain
- irregular heartbeat
- feeling of confusion off and on
- heart failure
Hypertension / High Blood Pressure Treatment
Treatment of hypertension can include a continuous intravenous infusion of prostacyclin. This improves exercise capacity, quality of life, hemodynamics and long-term survival in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension. Management of secondary pulmonary hypertension includes correction of the underlying cause and reversal of hypoxemia. Treatment with a non-selective beta blocker is often commenced once portal hypertension has been diagnosed, and almost always if there has already been bleeding from esophageal varices. Typically, this is done with either propranolol or nadolol . Common beta blockers include acebutolol (Sectral), atenolol (Tenormin), bisoprolol (Zebeta), metoprolol (Lopressor), nadolol (Corgard), and timolol (Blocadren), nebivolol (Bystolic). Treatment may involve angioplasty and stenting of the renal arteries.
Hypertension / High Blood Pressure Causes, Symptoms and Treatment