Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is known as the silent killer because it is responsible for millions of deaths from stroke, heart failure or heart attack. Yet on autopsy the true original cause of death due to hypertension is rarely made.
Do you monitor your blood pressure at least several times per year? Do you know what it should be at? Then you could be at risk of complications due to high blood pressure.
What Is The Definition Of High Blood Pressure?
The normal range for blood pressure is 90 to 119 systolic and 60 to 79 diastolic.
For example, a blood pressure of 100/70 is healthy. A blood pressure of 150/90 is hypertension. By the way, systolic pressure is when the heart beats and diastolic is when the heart relaxes.
Causes of Hypertension
Most people with hypertension have the essential or primary type. This means that they do not have a specific medical condition that causes it such as kidney problems. 95% of cases are essential.
One of the biggest causes is a high sodium intake from eating too much salt. Another is not enough potassium intake which comes from eating fruit and vegetables.
The more overweight you are then the higher your blood pressure will be. This is because excess weight puts pressure on the kidneys. If you snore loudly then you might have sleep apnea and this is strongly linked with hypertension.
Lastly, in some people it is just down to genetics. There will very often be a history of hypertension in the family in these cases. You should try changing your diet and lifestyle but if this doesn’t work then you must take daily drugs for the rest of your life.
Treatment
Nobody wants to take a battery of drugs with side effects and complications for the rest of their life. If you have hypertension then drugs should be a last resort.
The first thing you should do is lose weight if you are overweight. Even losing just 5 pounds could bring you back into the healthy range.
Secondly, you should modify your diet. You might even want to consider the famous DASH diet for getting back to a normal blood pressure.
Third, try drugs. But only consider them as an absolute last resort.