By the year 2025 more than 1.56 billion people worldwide, would have developed hypertension as predicted by the CDC. In the USA, one out of every 3 people above 20 years is found to have high blood pressure (hypertension).
Every year, more than 7 million people die due to blood pressure and its related illness, in America. By controlling blood pressure thousands of deaths due to heart attack can be prevented. The main cause of increasing numbers is current lifestyle with less/no physical activity and high salt diet and eating junk foods.
Key Points On Blood Pressure
A person is said to have blood pressure or hypertension if the reading is 140/90 mm of mercury in the instrument. Blood pressure develops primarily due to modern lifestyle and physical inactivity. Certain medical conditions like kidney problem can cause high blood pressure. Sphygmomanometer is used to measure blood pressure. Treatment for blood pressure includes medication combined with change in lifestyle and diet modification.
BP Definition
Blood pressure can be defined as the force with which blood flows against the walls of blood vessels. The rate at which heart pumps blood determines the blood pressure. Blood pressure is said to be normal if the reading in the blood pressure monitor remains 80/120 (diastolic/systolic).
BP can increase considerably if more blood is pumped out from your heart and similarly if the arteries path gets narrowed due to deposits of fat or plaque it can increase your blood pressure. If the blood through the walls of blood vessels with high force it causes hypertension or high blood pressure. BP can damage heart increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke and can damage the vital organs like kidney and in severe cases it can be fatal.
Systolic and Diastolic Pressure
There are 2 parts in blood pressure measurement. First/top number is known as systolic pressure which is the rate at which your heart pushes blood through the arteries. Second/bottom number is the diastolic pressure which the blood pressure rate when the heart is not pumping any blood. Normally diastolic pressure will always be lower in number. If the reading of blood pressure is anywhere between 120/80 to 140/90 it indicates you are likely to develop high BP in future.
If the reading is 140/90 or above it means you have hypertension. The measurement of BP would be higher in range shortly after exercising or when you are stressed or emotional. This would automatically get back to normal within few minutes. A person is said to have high blood pressure if his BP reading is higher than 140/90 most of the time without any obvious reason.
BP and Time
Blood pressure is not the same all through the day. The reading would be high if you measure it as soon as you wake-up. It continues to be in high reading and reaches the peak during the mid-afternoon. Slowly it begins to drop reaching normalcy in the evening/night. If you are having abnormally high reading of BP during early morning or night it indicates that you have some health problem.
Measuring Blood Pressure
Nowadays blood pressure monitors are available in many stores and pharmacies. Home BP monitor can be used to measure the hypertension at different intervals of time. All you have to do is to put on the cuff just few inches above your elbow and switch on the monitor button. The machine would automatically inflate the cuff measuring the BP and shortly it would start deflating and finally stop. The reading shown in the monitor is exactly your BP.
Causes Of Blood Pressure
- Lifestyle – Modern lifestyle has to be blamed for drastic increase in BP for many people. Lack of physical activity, eating plenty of junk foods (rich in salt) and intake of alcohol are the main factors for getting hypertension. Even adolescents are having high blood pressure due to this reason. Number of people developing blood pressure is steadily increasing due to physical inactivity and eating junk foods which makes them overweight causing blood pressure and related health issues.
- Growing old – As one grows older he/she is at increased risk of getting high BP. Blood pressure is common in adults and elderly people.
- Obesity – People who are overweight and obese are more likely to get high BP than others. Again more than half the adults are becoming overweight due to sedentary lifestyle and eating more (unwanted) food.
- Family History – You are likely to develop high BP if any of your parents are already having it.
- Stress – Increasing stress is another factor that cause increase in blood pressure. Many of us don’t know the method of managing stress which reflects in the form of various health problems at young age.
- Primary and Secondary Hypertension – For many people no visible causes would be present for high blood pressure. In that case it is known as primary blood pressure which develops gradually. Secondary hypertension is induced BP caused by various medical conditions like kidney problems, thyroid problems, sleep apnea (sleeping disorder), adrenal glands problem and defective blood vessels. This can cause considerably high BP when compared with primary factor. Prolonged use of contraceptive pills and over the counter painkillers can also cause secondary hypertension. Certain medical conditions like Cushing syndrome, cancer and overactive thyroid gland can also cause high blood pressure.
Blood Pressure Symptoms
For most of the people high BP will not cause any symptoms and for this reason blood pressure is known as “silent killer”. Only few people may get symptoms of headaches and tiredness if blood pressure reaches high level but most of them will have no symptoms (asymptomatic).