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Raising your awareness about high blood pressure |
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| Date Added: February 20, 2010 01:53:21 AM | |
| Author: jupliana788 | |
| Category: Shopping: Health | |
High blood pressure is very often called the "silent killer", because a lot of men and women do not even know they have it. This is because most people with hypertension have no symptoms. Blood from your heart to the organs is carried by the arteries. When the heart beats, it pushes blood through the arteries. In a person who has healthy arteries, the blood is able to stream through the arteries with little resistance. But in people whose arteries have constricted, the arteries prevent the blood from running through them. The heart has to work much harder to get the blood to the organs, and that is how high blood pressure occurs. Hypertension puts a strain on your heart and brings on damage to the blood vessels, which raises your risk for stroke, heart attack, heart disease and kidney failure. Blood pressure is made up of 2 measurements. The first number is called systolic, and determines the peak blood pressure when your heart is sending blood out into the arteries. The second figure is called diastolic, which is the pressure when your heart is resting between beats. Your blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). The systolic pressure is read first, and the diastolic pressure is read second. In healthy grownups blood pressure is 120/80 or lower. High blood pressure is a reading 140/90 or higher. A few factors increase your risk of hypertension. Some you can control, and some you cannot. The factors you cannot be in control of are: - Race. African Americans develop high blood pressure more often and earlier in life. Besides, severe cases of high blood pressure are more often observed in African Americans. - Age. Risk of hypertension raises as you become older. - Family history. If some of your close relatives have hypertension, you are at higher risk. Other factors that place you at risk for high blood pressure include • being overweight • lack of physical activity • smoking • consumption of too much salt. Physicians recommend that all grownups aged 18 and older be screened for high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, below are some recommendations to help you decrease it. • Do not smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products. Nicotine causes your blood vessels to constrict and your heart to beat faster, which raises your blood pressure. • Lose extra weight if you are corpulent. • Do physical exercises regularly for half an hour 5 or days a week. • Choose a balanced diet that contains plenty of fresh fruits and veggies and is low in saturated fat. • Limit your sodium and alcohol intake. If life-style improvements alone do not decrease your blood pressure, your doctor may besides prescribe antihypertensive medications to treat your high blood pressure. But note: even if you must take drugs, changing your life-style can help lower the amount of medications you take. |
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