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.

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How to lower blood pressure without medication

Article by Groshan Fabiola

High blood pressure affects more than 50 million Americans and hundreds of millions worldwide. The number of high blood pressure cases keeps increasing because more and more people are living stressful lives and eating junk-food that is rich in fats. Those who drink alcohol and smoke for a long time are also at a great risk of having high blood pressure.

High blood pressure itself is not an illness that damages the body, but if you suffer from high blood pressure for a long time then you are at a great risk to have a stroke or a heart-attack, or to develop a heart disease. Most of the people who have heart disease started with a high blood pressure that they did not treat.

High blood pressure doesn’t have any visible symptoms, so many people have it and they aren’t aware about it. It is usually discovered during routine medical controls, but a single measurement is not enough to discover it, because anyone can have high blood pressure after a stressful event or after practicing sports. If the doctor measures the blood pressure and its values are high every time then you have high blood pressure.

If you want to lower your blood pressure then you have two choices: medication and natural treatment. Many prefer to lower their blood pressure without medication because the drugs must be taken for the entire lifetime and they may not be effective or may have side-effects.

If you want to lower your blood pressure without medication you need to do two main things: to change your lifestyle and your diet.

The lifestyle must be changed so that it contains as little stress as possible, and you must start to exercise regularly. You can also try some relaxation tehniques such as yoga. Some experts state that yoga can lower blood pressure in short time if it’s done properly. If you are overweight you need to lose weight. Every lost pound can lower the blood pressure a little.Finally, alcohol and tobacco must be eliminated completely since they seriously increase the blood pressure.

The diet must be changed so that it contains as little sodium as possible. Sodium is an important mineral that the body needs daily, but if the needed quantity is exceeded it can raise the blood pressure dramatically. Salt is the main sodium source. A teaspoon of salt contains twice the normal amount of sodium, and many types of food also contain sodium, so it’s easy to consume much more sodium than the body needs. The easiest way to cut down sodium is to eat very little salt or none.

After studying the effects of several types of food on blood pressure, scientists have developed an eating plan called DASH – Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. DASH states that you should eat only fruits, vegetables, grains, fish and low-fat dairy products, and very few red meats, sweets and other foods that are rich in fats.

It’s simple to lower blood pressure without medication, but always consult a doctor before deciding on a diet plan or on any natural method of lowering blood pressure.