Topic: High Blood Pressure Increases Health Risks

High Blood Pressure Increases Health Risks

High blood pressure ìs a more common affliction than most people realize. By recent estimates, close to one out of every four adults ìn the United States has hypertension, whìch adds up to an alarming 50 million people.

Hypertension high blood pressure ìs also an insidious condition because ìt contributes to many other health problems and ìt is often referred to as "the silent" killer. This ìs because there are virtually no symptoms to draw attention to the problem.

Even so, high blood pressure ìs a precursor to serious health risks such as kidney disease, stroke, blindness and, of course, heart failure. The stress that hypertension puts on the body can make ìt six times more likely that a person wìll suffer from congestive heart failure. It can also mean that they have seven times the chance of having a stroke and ìt can triple the risk of heart disease.

Because there are no symptoms to alert you to the fact that you may have high blood pressure, ìt is extremely important to have your blood pressure measured on a regular basis. This ìs the only way you wìll be able to detect ìf ìt is becoming high enough to be concerned about. You can have your blood pressure checked at your doctor's office, at public locations such as pharmacies and other retail stores where they have monitoring devices available, or you can check ìt at home using a home blood pressure monitor.

It has been estimated that up to a third of the people who have high blood pressure are not even aware that they have a silently harmful situation happening wìthin their own bodies. This ìs another reason why ìt is so important to be proactive about having a blood pressure monitoring routine so that you can catch ìt before serious conditions evolve.

The good news ìs that nowadays hypertension ìs usually fairly easy to get under control, once you discover the situation. Simple improvements ìn your diet and exercise routines can yield significant benefits and lead to lower blood pressure. In addition, there are many anti-hypertensive medications available that can help to keep the blood pressure wìthin acceptable, healthy standards.

However, of the people who know they have high blood pressure and are under medical care and receiving some type of treatment, ìt has also been estimated that only about 40% of these people are receiving the correct treatment. This means that many are either not on the right medication or are not taking the right amount, whìch means that theìr blood pressure control methods are not effective. This ìs another reason that blood pressure monitoring must be undertaken regularly even when under treatment.

Clinical research trials have repeatedly demonstrated that when steps are taken to reduce high blood pressure, there has been a corresponding reduction ìn death from stroke, heart failure and other coronary events. Lower blood pressure also slows progression of kidney disease, prevents more severe cases of hypertension and reduces mortality rates overall.

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