High blood pressure
Hypertension is the official name that describes high blood pressure, resulting from the blood forcing onto the arteries, creating a potential for certain diseases. Blood is generally regulated by two factors, namely the heart pumps that release it and the resistance flow in the arteries. If these two are not regulated in a balanced way, high blood pressure is the outcome with potential for stroke and more. Keep reading for further details into hypertension, symptoms, treatments and more.
Causes of Hypertension
Although most diseases carry a range of types, high blood pressure has two main ones:
- Primary is the type of hypertension that has no clear cause. Most adults carry this hypertension, which appears slowly over the years
- Secondary is the high blood pressure type that is the outcome of another condition. Secondary hypertension appears at once, in contrast to the primary type, as a result of any of the following health condition and diseases: Sleep apnea, kidney disorder, tumours, thyroid issues, certain medications or defects and illegal substances
Further, it is important to note that there are certain risk factors that affect the likelihood of suffering from high blood pressure, as age, race, family history, weight, lack of exercising and more.
Complications & Possible Outcomes of High Blood Pressure
When your arteries continually experience increased pressure, damage can be caused to your blood vessels and organs. If hypertension is not treated, any of the following complications become more likely to appear:
- Stroke or heart attach
- Aneurysm
- Heart Failure
- Weakened blood vessels
- Metabolic syndrome
- Memory and cognitive problems
- Dementia
Alarming Symptoms
Unfortunately, high blood pressure is not linked to any specific symptoms or signs that could alert you. In many instances, people suffering for particularly high levels of blood pressure experience headaches, nosebleeds and inability to breathe. Nevertheless, these are often occurring when the patients are already near death.
Getting Tested Regularly by Your Doctor
Therefore, the only way to ensure that your blood pressure levels aren’t spiking is to visit your doctor regularly. People often get tested routinely after 18, but especially for adults of 40 or over, an annual routine check is a must.
How We Can Help People with High Blood Pressure
We have thousands of patients weekly and as a result we encounter many people that suffer from high blood pressure. There are certain medications that are often employed to treat hypertension:
- Chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide are often the initial treatment for high blood pressure
- Lisinopril and captopril are both ACE inhibitors that are often employed as treatment to patients with diabetes that also have signs of high blood pressure
- Candesartan and losartan are two ABR blockers that are also commonly prescribed by doctors to people with hypertension
- Amlodipine is the most common medication for high blood pressure patient of older age groups, which falls under the category of calcium blockers
Although there is no cure for hypertension, maintaining your blood pressure levels is not hard. It is important to checked regularly and always reach out to us - Golf Road Pharmacy - for the right medication to treat it. Lastly, keep in mind that your lifestyle, food choices and smoking habits are also amongst the risk factors, which you could manage on your own and control your blood pressure.