Hypertension Can Be A Very Dangerous Condition For Which There Is Often A quite Simple Solution

Despite the fact that high blood pressure is a potentially dangerous condition that affects an increasing number of individuals, it is normally surprisingly simple to cure it.

In recent years changes in diet and lifestyle in many western countries have resulted in a growth in the number of individuals with high blood pressure.

High blood pressure (which is otherwise known as hypertension, or more accurately arterial hypertension) is a dangerous condition that rarely shows any symptoms and that, if not detected and treated, can cause stroke, heart failure, heart attack, arterial aneurysm or renal failure � any one of which is a life-threatening condition.

So precisely what is hypertension and precisely what causes it?

The arteries of your body are continuously filled with blood that provides a normal 'background' pressure on the artery walls. As the heart pumps freshly oxygenated blood around the body it pushes this blood into the arteries which briefly raises the pressure on the artery walls during each beat of the heart. These two pressures are called the systolic pressure (the higher pressure as the heart pumps) and the diastolic pressure (the reduced 'background' pressure).

Normal levels of blood pressure vary from one person to the next but, in general, systolic pressure ought to be about 120mm and diastolic pressure ought to be about 80mm. This is generally written as a blood pressure of 120/80.

When your blood pressure begins to rise and then remains at a level above 120/80 then you are described as being 'prehypertensive' and, while this is not serious in itself, it is a sign that you may be at risk of developing hypertension and all of the problems which are associated with it. If your blood pressure rises to, and stays at, a level of 140/90 or above then you are suffering from hypertension and steps should be taken to reduce your blood pressure.

But just what makes you blood pressure rise and then stay at a high level?

Well, there are a variety of factors involved here and to begib 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 (in particular type 2 diabetes) and your age (as we grow older the arteries tend to become fibrous and lose their elasticity, creating a smaller cross-sectional area through which the blood can flow).

The second group of factors is much more within your control and includes stress, smoking, alcohol abuse, excess weight, high quantities of salt and saturated fats in the diet, a sedentary lifestyle and employment in certain occupations like motorway maintenance or flying.

The vast majority of these factors are treatable and, in a lot of cases, a quite simple adjustment to your diet and the addition of a bit of exercise into your daily diary is all that is necessary to solve the problem. The difficulty however is that, with few symptoms, most individuals do not know that they are suffering from hypertension in the first place.

So how can you go about solving the problem?

Fortunately the answer to this question is fairly simple. All you have to do is to drop by your doctor's office on a regular basis (a couple of times a year will do the trick) and ask him/her to check your blood pressure. The whole procedure is pain free, easy and quick and will provide you with peace of mind and could save your doctor a lot of work, time and expense down the road when you are forced to drop by his office once hypertension arrives.

If you are not too keen on visiting your doctor then a very good alternative nowadays is to simply monitor your own blood pressure. A number of simple to operate and quite inexpensive monitors are now available, allowing you to keep an eye on your own health, as well as that of your complete family, in the privacy and comfort of your own home.

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