SYMPTOMS OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

HIGH blood pressure widely known as hypertension is a health condition that occurs when a person’s blood pressure rises to a high level. While the blood flows through our vessels it encounters resistance. When we have narrow arteries the resistance experience during blood flow increases. The narrower the arteries get the more the resistance thus leading to an increase in blood pressure.

Hypertension is very common and builds over the years sometimes with no clear noticeable symptoms. This health condition poses danger to the body vessels and organs like the heart, kidney, and even the brain.
Regular blood pressure checkups, help the doctor notice any change.

TYPES OF HYPERTENSION

The types of hypertension are closely linked to the causes.
• Primary Hypertension: This type of hypertension is also called essential hypertension probably because most people who suffer from hypertension suffer from this very type. The cause of this health condition has not yet been identified regardless, some factors could contribute to the development of this health condition:
1) Physical change
2) Gene
3) Change in the environment

• Secondary Hypertension: This is a more serious type of hypertension. Factors that lead to this type of hypertension includes:
1) Drug abuse
2) Kidney disease
3) Medication side effects
4) Use of illegal drugs
5) Alcoholism

SYMPTOMS High Blood Pressure

Symptoms of hypertension take years if not decades to surface. When hypertension becomes severe, these are few symptoms that can be experienced :
• Dizziness
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Headache
• Nose bleeding
• Bloodstain in urine.

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These symptoms don’t occur in everyone with hypertension, so waiting until one sees these symptoms before one can get medical help is deadly. The best way is to regularly check your blood pressure reading. Checking of blood pressure has been incorporated into the daily routine check at every visit.

The doctor does not conclude diagnoses of hypertension at just one blood pressure check. This is because our blood pressure carries depending on the environment and stress of the day. So after some days or even weeks check-up with the same result, the doctor might want to conduct other tests(like urine test, ultrasound for a heart test, and cholesterol) test to find out the main cause.

BLOOD PRESSURE READING

While checking blood pressure, there are two numbers written in form of a fraction.
1) Systolic pressure: This is the first number written on top.
2) Diastolic pressure: This number is written bottom part.

EFFECTS of High Blood Pressure

Untreated hypertension leads to serious health complications such as:
• Heart attack:
• Stroke
• Brain damage: Hypertension reduces the flow of blood to the brain which in turn leads to the death of brain cells.
• Artery damage: The arteries are flexible and elastic but hypertension makes these arteries less elastic, tough hence causing fat to be deposited in them which damages the artery.

PREVENTION High Blood Pressure

• Regular blood pressure check-up
• Reduce sugar intake: Packages of food have a lot of sugar, it’s good to cut down the intake of it and always read the label if we must take one.
• Talk to your doctor to help u set and attain weight loss.
• Eat a healthy diet: Our diet should be more fruits and vegetables.