World Hypertension Day: The word hypertension suggests excessive tension, nervousness, or stress. In medical terms, hypertension refers to persistently high blood pressure, regardless of the cause. Because it usually does not cause symptoms for many years—until a vital organ is damaged—high blood pressure has been called the silent killer. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases the risk of problems such as stroke, aneurysm, heart failure, heart attack, and chronic kidney disease.
Blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of the blood vessels. In case of high blood pressure, the force needed to pump blood is higher than what is considered as normal. Having high blood pressure simply means, the heart has to pump harder to supply blood around the body.
Firstly, hypertension can have severe effects on the heart. When the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries is too high, it can cause damage to the heart’s blood vessels, making them thicker, narrower or weaker. This can lead to a condition known as coronary artery disease, where the blood flow to the heart muscle is reduced, which can cause chest pain or a heart attack.
Hypertension can also cause left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), which is an enlargement and thickening of the walls of the heart’s left ventricle. LVH is a common complication of hypertension and can result in heart failure, arrhythmias, or sudden cardiac death. Hypertension can have a significant impact on the kidneys. The kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from the blood and maintaining the body’s fluid balance. However, when the blood pressure is consistently high, it can cause damage to the small blood vessels in the kidneys, reducing their ability to filter waste products effectively.
Blood pressure varies naturally over a person’s life. Infants and children normally have much lower blood pressure than adults. For almost everyone living in industrialized countries such as the United States, blood pressure increases with aging. Systolic pressure increases until at least age 80, and diastolic pressure increases until age 55 to 60, then levels off or even decreases.
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