High Blood Pressure, Alias Hypertension – Health Public Enemy Number One

Many people call it the “silent killer”, because even if you feel no pain and go about your everyday life feeling hunky-dory, your brain, heart and kidneys are actually being affected. Blood pressure is the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. If you are lucky enough to have a normal blood pressure, you and your physician can work hand-in-hand to maintain aforementioned normalcy. If your blood pressure is too high, you need treatment to prevent damage to your body’s organs.

In almost every instance, doctors are not able to ascertain the exact cause of high blood pressure. But for about ten percent of all sufferers of this condition, there are a few specific causes that could have led to the disease – kidney abnormalities, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, tumors in the adrenal gland, hormonal quirks, birth control pills, pregnancy issues, a narrowing of the aorta and many, many others, including heredity.

In 90 to 95 percent of all scenarios, doctors do not have a concrete answer to the cause of high blood pressure. In about 10 percent of patients, the disease can be traced to specific causes: heredity, kidney abnormalities, adrenal gland tumors, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hormone abnormalities, use of birth control pills, pregnancy or a congenital narrowing of the aorta.

Other possible causes of higher blood pressure are weight gain and decreased physical activity in winter. The nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products causes your blood vessels to constrict and your heart to beat faster, which temporarily raises your blood pressure. There may even be a few instances where alcohol can increase blood pressure.

For hypertension that isn’t controlled by diet and exercise, new treatment guidelines for hypertension recommend that most patients be started on a thiazide-type diuretic, unless there is a compelling need for a different class of medications. All things considered, many people are not able to find the right treatment of high blood pressure not because they are not informed, but rather because they are not able to apply into practice what has been informed them.

Explore health current events for information on healthier living including the link between exercise and mental health.

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