How To Treat High Or Low Blood Pressure

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

Article by Peterhutch

Hypertension is referred to as essential (primary) when the doctor is unable to identify a specific cause. It is by far the most common type of high blood pressure. The causes of this type are unknown but are likely to be a complex combination of genetic, environmental, and other factors.

High blood pressure is a ‘risk factor’ for developing a cardiovascular disease (such as a heart attack or stroke), and kidney damage, sometime in the future. If you have high blood pressure, over the years it may have a damaging effect to arteries and put a strain on your heart. In general, the higher your blood pressure, the greater the health risks. But, high blood pressure is just one of several possible risk factors for developing a cardiovascular disease.

If those temporary episodes occur frequently, they can cause just as much damage to your blood vessels, heart and kidneys as can chronic high blood pressure. In addition, when you have anxiety, you’re more likely to resort to other unhealthy habits, such as smoking, drinking or overeating — which, in turn, can increase your risk of high blood pressure.

Even if high blood pressure does cause symptoms, the symptoms are usually mild and nonspecific (vague, or suggesting many different disorders).

Malignant hypertension may be associated with headache, light-headedness, or nausea.

Certain nerve impulses cause your arteries to dilate (become larger) or contract (become smaller). If these vessels are wide open, blood can flow through easily. If they’re narrow, it’s harder for the blood to flow through them, and the pressure inside them increases. Then high blood pressure may occur. When this happens, your heart becomes strained and blood vessels may become damaged. Changes in the vessels that supply blood to your kidneys and brain may cause these organs to be affected.

In 90-95 percent of cases, scientists don’t know what causes high blood pressure. This is essential hypertension. Fortunately, although scientists don’t fully understand the causes of this disease, they’ve developed both non-drug and drug treatments that treat it effectively. They’ve also identified some factors that contribute to higher blood pressure. These are arteriosclerosis (or hardening of the arteries), thickening or hypertrophy of the artery wall, and excess contraction of the arterioles (small arteries).

Essential hypertension affects approximately 75 million Americans, yet its basic causes or underlying defects are not always known. Nevertheless, certain associations have been recognized in people with essential hypertension. For example, essential hypertension develops only in groups or societies that have a fairly high intake of salt, exceeding 5.8 grams daily. In fact, salt intake may be a particularly important factor in relation to essential hypertension in several situations.

Hypertension is referred to as essential (primary) when the doctor is unable to identify a specific cause. It is by far the most common type of high blood pressure. The causes of this type are unknown but are likely to be a complex combination of genetic, environmental, and other factors.

The cause of high blood pressure often cannot be found in many teens with hypertension. When the cause is unknown, a person has what’s called essential or primary hypertension. In cases where the cause of high blood pressure is known (called secondary hypertension), it is usually the result of kidney problems, hormonal disorders, abnormalities of the aorta (the main artery that carries oxygenated blood to the body), or a narrowing of certain smaller arteries. Most teens that are diagnosed with hypertension have essential hypertension.

Read about home remedies.Read about skin whitening treatment and eye stye causes treatment remedies

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

Particularly, there is no cause of high blood pressure. But, there are some factors which may affect or related to high blood pressure. Likewise, the symptoms of high blood pressure are hard to identify. This is really a silent disease and a silent killer.

These are some of the :

Family history- High blood pressure usually runs in the families. If family members have high blood pressure, the rest of the members might have high blood pressure also. Age factor- When a person gets older, the more he is at risk of high blood pressure. Alcohol consumption- Too much alcohol in the body can increase the rate of heart disease over the time. Anxiety- This can lift up the blood pressure. Potassium intake- There should be enough potassium intakes, not lower and not higher too. Because if potassium level is too low, there would be high sodium in the cells. Too much sodium- In can produce fluid preservation and high blood pressure. This is the reason why sodium and potassium work hand in hand. They balance one another. Cigarette smoking- People who smoke usually have heart disease. This is because the chemicals present in the tobacco damages the artery walls. Action- A person who lacks physical activities be likely to increase heart rate. It will push the heart to exert or function more with each contraction. Obesity- There would be more pressure on the artery walls if there is a greater body mass. The reason for this is because higher blood is created to provide oxygen and nutrients toward tissues in the body.

Those are some factors that . High blood pressure can also be caused by some health conditions fundamental in your history. These medical conditions are kidney disease, thyroid disease, adrenal gland disease, hormonal disorders and use of contraceptives and licorice. If you have these, your high blood pressure is called secondary hypertension. On the other hand, if the cause is unknown, it is called primary hypertension.

Usually, high blood pressure include to the workload of your heart and arteries. Because of this your heart should pump harder thus making the arteries to carry blood under a greater pressure. Your heart and arteries will stop working properly if high blood pressure persists for a long time. There would be an increase risk of stroke, kidney failure and heart attack. To those people who are obese, tobacco user, and those who have high blood cholesterol or high blood diabetes have higher risk of stroke.

Blood pressure less than 120/80 mm Hg is the ideal blood pressure but a level that is higher than this increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.