The Dangers of Hypertension

: The circulatory system carries vital materials and removes waste throughout your body using your blood through a pressure system operated by your heart as its center. Your heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood through this system every day, and that volume increases with greater physical activity.

The blood vessels, veins, arteries, and capillaries that make up this crucial system need the blood to move with a specific amount of pressure to maintain good health, and if levels are too much higher or lower than that amount, it can lead to many medical problems. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, happens frequently to millions, but there are ways to lower the risk.

Dr. Shruti Patel and her experienced team at Low Cost Health Clinics can help with hypertension and many other chronic health conditions that residents of Anaheim, Riverside, Santa Ana, Corona, and Indio, California, may face.

Defining hypertension

Blood pressure indicates the measure of the force that rushing blood exerts on your veins, arteries, and blood vessels as it pumps from your heart to your body. When testing how high or low your blood pressure is, here’s how that information is measured:

• Normal blood pressure: Under 120/80

• Elevated blood pressure: between 120/80-129/80

• Stage 1 hypertension: between 130/80-139/89

• Stage 2 hypertension: 140/90 or higher

• Stage 3 hypertension: 180/120 or higher

• Hypertensive crisis: 180/120 or higher with symptoms

When reading blood pressure readings, the top number is the systolic (the pressure on artery walls as the heart contracts), and the bottom is the diastolic (measuring the pressure between heartbeats). 

Causes and symptoms

Hypertension often happens due to obesity, a sedentary lifestyle (physical inactivity), diabetes, a high-sodium diet, family history, and alcohol abuse. The risk also increases in people over 65, and Black Americans have a higher risk of hypertension than other populations. 

Various medical conditions can also cause this problem (called secondary hypertension), including obstructive sleep apnea, kidney disease, thyroid diseases, adrenal gland conditions, endocrine tumors, and congenital heart problems.

Often known as the ‘silent killer’ because it doesn’t always present with symptoms until something severe occurs, when signs present themselves, people experience vomiting, headaches, nausea, chest pain, back pain, breathing problems, and visual disturbances.

Long-term complications

Your blood pressure varies for many reasons, including the amount of physical activity and time of day, so an elevated reading at certain times of the day isn’t much to worry about on its own. It’s when you maintain sustained high blood pressure for long periods that it becomes a cause for concern.

The longer you deal with it untreated, the greater the risk of many conditions, such as an aneurysm, heart attack, stroke, kidney problems, heart failure, metabolic syndrome, memory problems, dementia, and vision loss.

Healthy blood pressure is crucial for long-term health, so monitor it regularly and get it treated if it gets too high or too low. For more information about your blood pressure and how to treat related problems, make an appointment with Dr. Patel and the Low Cost Health Clinics team today.