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High blood pressure or high blood pressure occurs when the heart is pumping harder to move blood throughout the body.
This can weaken blood vessels and organs such as the brain, which if not treated in time can cause a stroke.
Blood pressure, like a person’s heart rate, can vary from time to time with exercise or stress. Anyone who has had a heart attack, stroke, diabetic people, with kidney disease, high cholesterol or overweight, should talk to their doctor about how to control aggressively and lower blood pressure .
How is high blood pressure related to stroke?
Doctors have called high blood pressure a lot like “the silent killer” since a person can have high blood pressure and not have any symptoms. If it is left untreated, it can lead to serious medical problems, such as stroke, heart attack or kidney failure.
High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of strokes, as it increases the tension in the walls of blood vessels, causing them to thicken and deteriorate, which can eventually lead to a stroke. It can also accelerate several common forms of heart disease.
When the walls of the blood vessels are swollen by increased blood pressure, cholesterol and other fat-like substances can break down the walls of the arteries and block a cerebral artery. In other cases, increased stress can weaken the walls of blood vessels, leading to a rupture causing a cerebral hemorrhage .
If a person has had a stroke, it is especially important to keep blood pressure under control to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke.
What causes high blood pressure?
In most cases, it is impossible to determine the exact cause of high blood pressure, however there are a number of factors that are related, including:
- Family history of high blood pressure.
- Age: The incidence of high blood pressure rises in men after 35 years and in women after 45 years.
- Sex: Men are more likely to have high blood pressure than women up to 45 to 64 years old. After that, women are more likely to have high blood pressure.
- Race: Approximately 41 percent of African Americans have high blood pressure, compared to 28 percent of Caucasians. Almost half of 44% of African-American women have high blood pressure. Hispanic Americans have a slightly higher risk of having high blood pressure than Caucasians.
- Other factors that can lead to high blood pressure include excess weight, excessive alcohol consumption, diabetes, lack of exercise and a diet high in salt.
How can hypertension be treated?
In most people, high blood pressure can be controlled with diet, exercise, medication or a combination of all three.
A diet that is low in salt and rich in vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products can help lower blood pressure.
A program of regular exercise according to the age and physical condition of a person, approved by a doctor can not only help in weight loss, but also helps to lower high blood pressure.
Finally, there is a wide range of medications available to treat high blood pressure. A doctor may have to try several different medications before finding one that works best for a person’s needs. This is a common problem that doctors are accustomed to handling. It is important to take the medications exactly as prescribed, even when a person feels well.
There are more than 50 antihypertensive drugs prescribed in the market to choose from. In many patients, some antihypertensive medications can cause side effects such as dizziness or nausea. Several antihypertensive drugs work differently, some decrease the volume of plasma in the blood or the rate of blood flow through the body, while others relax the heart by affecting the passage of certain elements in the blood.
