What is hypertension?

What causes hypertension?

What is hypertension? Hypertension, commonly called "high blood pressure" is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated above the normal healthy range.

Blood pressure has two components, systolic and diastolic. Healthy blood vessels are elastic. When the heart contracts and sends a pulse of blood gushing through the arteries they expand in the systolic, or peak pressure component of blood pressure. Before the next heart beat the blood vessels relax and return to the low pressure diastolic level. Blood pressure is measured with an instrument that reads this pressure as millimeters of mercury in a pressure column, or mmHg, or simply as the systolic over diastolic reading; i.e., 115/75. As people age their arteries stiffen and become less elastic and this causes higher blood pressure readings. This why your blood pressure says a lot about your true physical age.

Define hypertension. We define hypertension by blood pressure measurements. Classification of blood pressure is based upon two or more careful readings on two or more separate occasions.

Normal BP is 120/80 or less. (115/75 is optimal)
Prehypertension is (120-139)/(80-89)
Hypertension is 140/90 or greater.

Once arterial pressure rises above 115/75 mmHg, the risk of cardiovascular disease begins to increase. We define prehypertension as blood pressure that is elevated above normal but not to the level considered to be hypertension. We define hypertension as when a person's systolic blood pressure is consistently 140 mmHg or greater, and/or their diastolic blood pressure is consistently 90 mmHg or greater.

What causes hypertension? A variety of factors can contribute to hypertension, but the cause is not always one specific thing. Many times a variety of hypertension risk factors add up to cause the condition. Hypertension risk factors include obesity and overweight, kidney disease, sodium, smoking, alcohol, and stress.

Kidney function and disease may cause blood pressure to increase due to fluid overload and production of hormones that regulate blood vessel pressures. Renal failure or kidney failure is a situation in which the kidneys do not function adequately. When the kidneys malfunction, common problems are increased fluid levels in the body leading to fluid retention and fluid overload often causing increased blood volume and high blood pressure.

Essential hypertension vs. secondary hypertension. Hypertension can be classified as either essential (primary) or secondary. Essential hypertension indicates that no specific medical cause can be found to explain a patient's condition. Secondary hypertension indicates that the high blood pressure is a result of, or secondary to, another condition, such as kidney disease.

Complications of hypertension. What is hypertension's effect on the body? While elevated blood pressure alone is not an illness, it often requires treatment due to its short- and long-term effects on many organs. The risk is increased for:
* Stroke
* Heart attack
* Heart failure
* Damage to the retina
* Kidney failure

Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a leading cause of chronic renal failure. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure leads to shortened life expectancy. Hypertension can be a silent killer that slowly and quietly damages organs and blood vessels. At severely high pressures, defined as mean arterial pressures 50% or more above average, a person can expect to live no more than a few years unless appropriately treated.

Treatment for hypertension takes two primary routes, and often a combination of the two. These are: natural cures for hypertension with lifestyle changes and/or managing hypertension with medication. Lifestyle modifications are the best natural cures for hypertension, but may not control the most severe cases. Managing hypertension with medication is the other route.

What is hypertension management medicine and its goals? There are many classes of medications for treating hypertension, together called antihypertensives which act by various means to lower blood pressure. Evidence suggests that reduction of higher blood pressure by 5-6 mmHg can decrease the risk of stroke by 40%, of coronary heart disease by 15-20%, and reduces the likelihood of dementia, heart failure, and mortality from vascular disease.

The aim of treatment for managing hypertension should be blood pressure control to <140/90 mmHg for most patients, and lower in case of diabetes or kidney disease. Each added drug may reduce the systolic blood pressure by 5-10 mmHg, so often multiple drugs are necessary to achieve blood pressure control.

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