Hypertension

What is It?

What is hypertension? Wikipedia refers to the disease as "high blood pressure or HTN, is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated."

The combination of hypertension and being overweight increases the chances of developing one or more conditions - that’s why it's symptoms and causes will be examined. In fact, the older you are, the more likely you will develop the condition unless you take steps to prevent it. If you are overweight when you are young, you may develop abnormally high blood pressure at an older age. However, it has been suggested that this condition is also inherited, which doesn't help the situation either.

Symptoms and Causes

A few years ago, the American Medical Association announced that normal blood pressure should be 120/80. This was lowered from the previous systolic and diastolic pressure considered to be within normal range. The arterial disease (accompanied by high blood pressure) in men is a serious and often fatal disease. High blood pressure can lead to heart failure, kidney failure, or stroke.

You may not even realize you have this condition, as the symptoms do not reveal themselves. However, you should assume you are a candidate for the arterial disease if you are over 40, if there is a history of this condition in your family; and you are overweight.

The first thing you need to do if you are in any way susceptible to this condition is...you guessed it - remove the sodium from your diet. You also should have your blood pressure checked (at least once a month), and avoid stress (click here to read the symptoms of stress). So let's face it - we may work in an environment that breeds stress.

So what "breeds" stress? It may be

• the job
• money problems
• smoking
• overweight
• alcohol
• and, other social and psychological factors

all of which may contribute to the condition.

FYI - it's important to understand that it's not a curable disease, nor one which is tangible.

Also keep in mind that the disease is not exclusive to any one group and affects people from all walks of life. To what degree the disease can cause damage to your heart, kidneys and brain depends on its severity.

If you find that you have taken every precaution and your blood pressure is still high, your doctor may prescribe medication (only if he or she feels it is absolutely necessary). But remember - some of the drugs have side effects, while others can be tolerated. And while on any type of medication - do not fall under the assumption that because you may feel better you can stop taking the drugs. This is a dangerous scenario, as mentioned earlier, because hypertension is a symptom-less disease.

Saying that, if you:

• follow a proper diet that doesn't contain sodium
• if you alter your lifestyle in order to ease the stress and other factors which contribute to the disease

hypertension it can be controlled. On that note - because hypertension in men is prevalent, over fifty percent of men don't realize they have the condition.

Take care of your health and it will take care of you!

[top]

...click here to go from hypertension to the Home Page