High Blood Pressure Is An Extremely Dangerous Problem For Which There Is Often A Simple Answer

Over the past few years changes in lifestyle and diet in many western societies have caused a growth in the number of individuals suffering from high blood pressure.

High blood pressure (otherwise called hypertension, or more properly arterial hypertension) is a serious condition that rarely has any symptoms and that, if left undetected and untreated, can result in stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm or renal failure - any one of which is a life-threatening condition.

So exactly what is high blood pressure and exactly what causes it?

The arteries within the body are continuously filled with blood which provides a normal 'background' pressure on the walls of the arteries. When the heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around the body it forces this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure exerted on the walls of the arteries during each heartbeat. These two pressures are called the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart is pumping) and the diastolic pressure (the lower normal or 'background' pressure).

Normal levels of blood pressure vary from person to person but, generally, systolic pressure should be approximately 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure ought to be approximately 80 mm Hg. This is normally written as a pressure of 120/80.

Whenever your blood pressure begins to rise and remains at a level above 120/80 then you are described as being 'prehypertensive' and, while this is not serious in itself, it is an indication that you may be at risk of developing hypertension and the problems associated with it. As soon as your blood pressure rises to, and maintains, a level of 140/90 or above you are said to be suffering from hypertension and action needs to be taken to lower your blood pressure.

But what makes you blood pressure rise and remain at a high level?

Well, there are numerous factors at play here and to start there is a group over which you have little, or no, control. This group of factors includes low weight at birth, various genetic factors, some types of diabetes (especially type 2 diabetes) and your age (with increasing age our arteries display a tendency to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, resulting in a reduced cross-sectional area through which the blood can flow).

The second group of factors is much more controllable and includes a sedentary lifestyle, large levels of salt and saturated fats in the diet, being overweight, smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, stress and working in certain occupations like motorway maintenance or flying.

The majority of these factors are of course treatable and, in many cases, a quite simple adjustment to your diet and the addition of some exercise into your daily diary is all that is needed to solve the problem. However, the difficulty is that, with few, if any, symptoms, the majority of individuals are not aware that they are suffering from hypertension in the first place.

So how do you go about solving the problem?

Well, fortunately, the answer to this particular question is very simple. All you have to do is to call in at your physician's office regularly (for most of us about twice a year should be sufficient) and ask him/her to check your blood pressure for you. The procedure is painless, simple and fast and will give you peace of mind and possibly save your doctor a lot of time, work and expense down the road when you are forced to call in at his office once hypertension has set in.

If you are not all that keen on calling in to see your doctor then a very good alternative nowadays is to simply monitor your own blood pressure. A large selection of simple to operate and quite inexpensive blood pressure monitors are available today, allowing you to keep an eye on your own health, and that of your entire family, in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

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