High Blood Pressure - The Silent Killer

According to recent estimates, approximately one in three U.S. adults suffer from high blood pressure. However, because the symptoms are not obvious, nearly one-third of the people who have high blood pressure don't know it. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure. The problem is so pervasive high blood pressure is often called "the silent killer."

What is Blood High Pressure?
Blood pressure is the force in the arteries when the heart beats and when it is at rest. High blood pressure (or hypertension) is defined in an adult as a blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg when active or 90 mm Hg when at rest.

High blood pressure can have serious repercussions for the heart but it may also profoundly affect other organs and create complications for pregnant women.

According to Americanheart.org
There are a number of factors that can increase high blood pressure. While some are hereditary, others can be changed with lifestyle choices. It is vital to have your blood pressure checked regularly, especially if any of the factors below relate to you. Then test your heart for its health and if needed take action on these factors below that can be changed.

Factors that can be changed:

Overweight (obesity): Obesity is defined by your body mass index (BMI) rather than weight and is very closely related to high blood pressure. Medical professionals strongly recommend that all obese people with high blood pressure lose weight until they are within 15% of their healthy body weight. Your health care provider can help you calculate your BMI and a healthy range of body weight.

Sodium (salt) sensitivity: Some people have high sensitivity to sodium (salt), and their blood pressure goes up if they use much salt. Reducing sodium intake tends to lower blood pressure. Americans consume 10-15 times more sodium than they need. Fast foods and processed foods contain particularly high amounts of sodium. Many over-the-counter medicines, such as painkillers, also contain large amounts of sodium. Read labels to find out how much sodium is contained in food items and avoid those with high sodium levels.

Alcohol use: Drinking more than one to two drinks of alcohol per day tends to raise blood pressure in those who are sensitive to alcohol.

Birth control pills (oral contraceptive use): Some women who take birth control pills develop high blood pressure. Check with your practitioner.

Lack of exercise (physical inactivity): A sedentary lifestyle contributes to the development of obesity and high blood pressure. Even minor exercise like a daily walk can dramatically reduce blood pressure.

Drugs: Certain drugs, such as amphetamines (stimulants), diet pills, and some pills used for cold and allergy symptoms, tend to raise blood pressure.
If one or more of these relate to you, please check your blood pressure regularly!

Smoking: Smoking increases blood pressure and therefore the risk of heart disease. The longer and more cigarettes one smokes the greater the risk. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than non-smokers. Women who smoke and also take birth control pills increase several times their risk of heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

Factors that can't be changed

Age: The older you get, the more likely you are to develop high blood pressure, especially when active. This is largely due to arteriosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries."

Race: African Americans have high blood pressure more often than people of European descent. They develop high blood pressure at a younger age and develop more severe complications sooner.

Family history (heredity): The tendency to have high blood pressure appears to run in families.

Gender: Generally men have a greater likelihood of developing high blood pressure than women. This likelihood varies according to age and among various ethnic groups.

Don't Get Killed By High Blood Pressure

igh blood pressure kills! People with high blood pressure are eight times more exposed to suffer stroke than people with normal blood pressure. They are also three times more susceptible to have heart attack. High blood pressure is common to people ages 40 and above. The incidence is not only rampant in the western world but there is an increasing occurrence in the orient as well- especially in large cities.

What causes high blood pressure? It is estimated that about 10 percent of all high blood pressure cases are due to kidney or adrenal disease while the remaining 90 percent doesn't have exact known reason. Studies however show that there may be six factors that contribute to high blood pressure.

1. High blood pressure's number one culprit may be the sodium in salt. Not everyone though has the same reaction to salt since different individuals have varying sensitivity to salt. Studies show that those groups of people who consume very little salt (less than 0.5 grams per day) like the Eskimos, Australian aborigines and the New Guinea and Solomon Island tribes have no reported case of high blood pressure. On the other hand, the Lau Tribes people of the Solomon Islands who boil their vegetables in sea water have higher than normal blood pressure. They usually consume around 20 grams of salt a day. Studies show that northern Japanese farmers have a high incidence of hypertension and the most common cause of death among them is stroke. Could it be because they consume about 30 grams of salt per day? These farmers preserve their food with salt. Despite what these studies show, it doesn't mean that we should remove salt altogether in our diet. Our body needs about 0.2 grams of salt per day as salt is vital to our health. The lesson therefore is to cut our salt intake and probably we could solve one of the biggest health problems of our times. People with high blood pressure should all the more reduce their salt intake.

2. Narrowing of the blood vessels caused by high blood cholesterol level is also believed to be a causative factor in hypertension. To avoid this, it is best to keep track of our diet and minimize food intake rich in fat and cholesterol.

3. Obesity may also contribute to high blood pressure. The extra load of fat requires thousands more blood vessels which in turn need higher blood pressure to circulate blood through them.

4. Women who are taking birth control pills that contain estrogen are observed to have higher blood pressure. Estrogen which is a female hormone found in birth control pills causes salt retention in the body which has the same effect as consuming too much salt.

5. Over consumption of refined sugar is suspected to be causing a person's decreased kidney function. Kidney disease is a known cause of high blood pressure.

6. Lastly, stress in all its forms, whether social stress, noise stress or work related stress may cause high blood pressure.

Blood Pressure Control
High blood pressure is a major problem of most of the people now a days. But we can control it easily. Tips to Control High Blood Pressure. Information about lowering your blood pressure. Norvasc Generic