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High Blood Pressure Can Be A Dangerous Condition For Which There Is Generally A Simple Answer
In the last few years alterations to the diet and lifestyle in many western countries have caused a growth in the number of people with high blood pressure.
High blood pressure (which is otherwise referred to as hypertension, or more accurately arterial hypertension) can be a dangerous condition which seldom shows any symptoms and that, if not detected and treated, can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm or renal failure - any one of which is a serious life-threatening condition.
So precisely what is hypertension and exactly what causes it?
The arteries of your body are continuously filled with blood that produces a normal 'background' pressure against the walls of the arteries. As your heart pumps newly oxygenated blood around your body it forces this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure on the walls of the arteries with each heartbeat. These two pressures are referred to as the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart is pumping) and the diastolic pressure (the lower 'background' pressure).
Normal blood pressure differs from one individual to the next but, in general, systolic pressure ought to be approximately 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure should be around 80 mm Hg. This is normally shown as a pressure of 120/80.
When your blood pressure starts to rise and stays at a level above 120/80 then you are said to be 'prehypertensive' and, despite the fact that this is not in itself serious, it is a sign that you could be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems associated with it. Once your blood pressure rises to, and stays at, a level of 140/90 or above then you are suffering from hypertension and action needs to be taken to lower your blood pressure.
But what makes you blood pressure rise and remain elevated?
Well, there are several factors at play here and the first is a group over which you have little, if any, control. This group includes a low birth weight, several genetic factors, some forms of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age the arteries have a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, creating a reduced cross-sectional area for the blood to flow through).
The next group of factors is far more controllable and includes a sedentary lifestyle, large quantities of salt and saturated fats in your diet, being overweight, smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, stress and employment in specific occupations like motorway maintenance or flying.
The majority of these factors are of course treatable and, in a lot of cases, a simple adjustment to your diet and the addition of a bit of exercise into your daily routine is all that is necessary to reverse the problem. However, the difficulty is that, without any real symptoms, the vast majority of people do not know that they are suffering from high blood pressure in the first place.
So how do you solve the problem?
Luckily the answer to this question is very simple. All you need to do is to call in at your doctor's office regularly (for most of us about twice a year will do the trick) and ask him or her to check your blood pressure. The process is painless, easy and fast and will give you peace of mind and possibly save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense later on when you are forced to present yourself at his office once hypertension rears its ugly head.
If you are not all that keen on calling in to see your doctor then a very good alternative nowadays is to monitor your own blood pressure. A number of easy to operate and quite inexpensive blood pressure monitors are available now, allowing you to maintain a check on your health, and the health of of your complete family, in the privacy and comfort of your own home.
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