Knowing What High Blood Pressure Is

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) conducted a national survey of much more than 1,500 Americans over the age of 50 to gauge the awareness of high blood pressure, such as its risks and causes. This group is considered to be at excellent risk for complications from uncontrolled high blood pressure. Common health risks of high blood pressure are heart attack and stroke. It takes several years for high blood pressure to develop and manifest itself through symptoms. Regular health checkups can help in detecting the condition and so can be dealt with, with the required measures. The etiology of hypertension continues in the following.

Hypertension signifies the fact that the force of the blood against the artery walls is way too much than what is required. And this force gives rise to a number of diseases of the heart. In people who have this condition, the heart works more than required and pumps more blood.

Also, the arteries in such people happen to be narrower. So the more intense these two factors are, the higher is the blood pressure. It is a fact that many people suffer from this condition, without having any clue about it. And this may have serious repercussions, as uncontrolled hypertension causes severe health concerns.

High Blood Pressure Causes

To understand the concept of the etiology of hypertension, you must abreast yourself with the two types of this disease. One is known as primary hypertension, a.k.a. essential hypertension, and the other, secondary hypertension.

Coming to secondary hypertension, it may not be an idiopathic condition, unlike the primary one. Experts have found that in most people, the condition of high blood pressure seems to occur as a complication of some other medical condition in the body. This is the reason the condition is called so. Unlike the first one, this kind of hypertension tends to have a sudden attack and more intense. So the reasons for high blood pressure of this particular condition include:

* Diseases of the kidneys * Birth defects in the blood vessels * Use of illicit drugs * Tumors of the adrenal glands * Side effects of medications used for cold, pain, birth control

Now, in case of the first type, it has been found that in most adults, the condition comes as an idiopathic condition. Meaning, primary hypertension, apparently has no cause that can be identified with solid evidence. And this the reason, the treatment of this condition may not come easy. Also, it has the nature of growing or developing gradually over many years, before it takes on a severe form.

Get to know more about hypertension.