One-third of adults have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension—and many don’t know it. This dangerous condition can do lasting damage to your health if it remains untreated.
Discover the symptoms and effects of hypertension, and see how regularly monitoring it can help detect high blood pressure before the onset of complications, and help you control it.
Blood pressure is indicated by two numbers.
○ The first is the systole, when the heart contracts and ejects blood into the arteries.
○ The second is the diastole, when the heart relaxes. The reading is a unit of pressure expressed as millimeters of mercury (mmHg).
It is generally written as "120/80 mm Hg."
Blood pressure has a daily pattern. During the day, your blood pressure continues to rise. It usually experiences a peak in the middle of the afternoon. In the evening, BP begins to decrease. Normally, it should be lower at night, when you are asleep.
"Blood pressure can be highly variable. Thus the diagnosis of hypertension should not be based on a single set of blood pressure readings at a single office visit, unless the blood pressure is substantially increased."
According to the European Society of Cardiology, systolic pressure of less than 120 and diastolic pressure of less than 80 is a normal, healthy blood pressure.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is above 140/90 mm Hg for an adult.
When a person suffers from hypertension, it means that the walls of their circulatory system are constantly under too much strain.
Some strong evidence shows that high blood pressure is more common among people who have the following risk factors:
Hypertension is often underdiagnosed because it may not show symptoms. High blood pressure warning signs may include:
When your blood pressure becomes very high—above 180/110 mm Hg—you might experience an hypertensive crisis. There are 2 types of high blood pressure crisis:
○ Hypertensive urgency: a severe uncontrolled hypertension uplift that does not show evidence of organ damage.
○ Hypertensive emergency: the blood pressure elevation is so high that it causes organ damage (brain, eyes, heart, etc.)
However, hypertensive crisis is a rare complication. One of its main risk factors is the use of a discontinued or over-the-counter treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic hypertension.
Hypertension is the most common chronic disease in the world and is considered a major cardiovascular risk factor.
As it can be difficult to alert people to an increase in their blood pressure, hypertension is often called “the silent killer,” as it can damage you heart in various ways.
Heart failure
Hypertension increases the risk of developing heart failure, a dangerous condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood throughout the body.
Atrial fibrillation
People who have high blood pressure are at a higher risk for atrial fibrillation (AFib), an anomaly of the heart’s electrical activity, which is often asymptomatic. AFib may lead to stroke, heart failure and cognitive decline. Learn more about AFib +
Coronary heart disease
Also called ischemic heart disease, this is a frequent complication in hypertensive patients. Under too much strain, the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart can become too narrow, reducing blood flow in the heart.
Left ventricular hypertrophy
Common in people who have uncontrolled high blood pressure, this condition thickens the walls of your heart's main pumping chamber. The result is an enlarged heart that can lose the ability to pump with proper force.
Valvular heart disease
This condition, in which one or more of your four heart valves doesn't work properly, is thought to be linked with elevated blood pressure. Learn more about VHD +
Because high blood pressure is often "silent," with no symptoms, many people may have hypertension without knowing it. Monitoring your blood pressure at home may enable you and your physician to detect hypertension before the onset of complications.
The European Society for Hypertension recommends home monitoring for all people with high blood pressure for better control and to help the healthcare provider to determine whether treatments are working.
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