Hypertension - Knowing The Risks And How To Avoid Them

Hypertension - Knowing The Risks And How To Avoid Them

To fully understand the risks related to high blood pressure you need to first understand what it is and how it is caused. High blood pressure, in simple terms, describes the force that is created by blood exerting pressure on the arteries. Blood flow is created when the heart beats and at this point your blood pressure is at its highest. In medical terms this is referred to as the systolic pressure. Between each beat there is a rest period usually lasting a second. At this stage the heart is resting and the pressure drops. This is referred to as the diastolic pressure.

When your blood pressure is measured using these two pressure levels they are referred to as 2 numbers. The systolic pressure is the number at the top of the scales whereas the diastolic number is at the bottom. If your systolic number is 110 and your diastolic number is 70 then your blood pressure is referred to as 110 over 70.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how blood pressure works we can discuss the risks. Hypertension is often referred to as the silent killer. If the condition is left untreated it can lead to the following complications:

* Coronary heart disease

* Congestive heart failure

* Dementia

* Stroke

* Kidney failure

* Alzheimer's disease

* Blindness

These risk factors can be reduced by making certain changes to your lifestyle and diet as follows:

* Reducing your weight

* Stop smoking

* Reducing your alcohol intake

* Reducing your intake of salt

* More Exercise

However, there are certain risk factors that you cannot control as follows:

Age - as we get older the risk of high blood pressure increases. For males it is 55 years and over and for females the age is 65 and over.

Heredity conditions - your risk increases if your family has a history of heart disease or stroke for example, your father or brother with heart disease before they were 55, or your mother diagnosed with heart disease before 65.

It is not all doom and gloom, all it takes to either prevent or lower high blood pressure is a few changes to your lifestyle. For example, if you are overweight you are at a higher risk. You can lose weight in two ways with the first being a change in your diet. If you eat a Western diet it is probably an unhealthy one. Reduce the fat in your diet by cutting out fast food and grill or steam your food rather than deep fat frying it. Introduce more fresh organic vegetables and fruit and replace the high sugar cola drinks with plenty of water or freshly squeezed fruit juice.

The second is your lifestyle. If you do little to no exercise then you need to exercise more. You do not have to go out and run a marathon, a brisk 15 minute walk will help to reduce your weight and lower your risk of getting high blood pressure. If you have not exercised for a long time then consult your doctor. They can look at your medical history and determine the best course of action in relation to changing your diet and starting an exercise program.

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