High blood pressure is a heath condition that affects the body in such a way that there may be no outright symptoms for a long period of time. The damage this health risk causes occurs inside the body and if left untreated and unchecked, the effects of high blood pressure on the body can be catastrophic. The main body organs and/or parts that high blood pressure has a significant effect on a person are the heart, eyes, brain, kidneys, and the blood vessels.
The heart is the organ that pumps blood to the body. The effects of hypertension on the heart can be in different ways: For example, coronary artery disease can develop when hypertension causes the arterial vessels to become blocked so that blood cannot flow freely to and from the heart. When this happens, angina or chest pain occurs; it can also result to irregular beating of the heat. These conditions, on the other hand, set in motion the onset of heart attack. An increased blood pressure also makes your heart work harder than usual in order to supply blood through your entire system. As a result, this can lead to an enlargement or hardening of the left ventricle, which amplifies the risk to heart failure and cardiac arrest. Heart failure can also result from wearing down of the heart muscles because of high blood pressure.
The eye, on the other hand, can be affected by high blood pressure because increased pressure can cause bursting of the eye blood vessels. This can potentially result to blurred vision, or worse blindness. The same can result from the accumulation of fluids in the retina, which can be caused by leaks or blocks in the blood vessels in the eyes. The brain, on the other hand, also needs a steady blood supply. The hypertension consequences on the brain can be fatal. It can cause the blocking of arteries leading to the brain. This can in turn lead to a condition called stroke; it can also cause the bulging and rupturing of blood vessels, which is called aneurysm. All these events can be severely life threatening. The insufficient amount of oxygen in the brain, for long periods, can cause the brain disease dementia, usually in old people, wherein the ability to speak, to think, to reason and other cognitive abilities become impaired.
Another organ that the effects of high blood pressure can hit is the kidneys. The kidneys are essential because they serve as filters for excess fluid and other waste material inside our body. Hypertension can cause kidney failure, both by harming the arteries and blood vessels leading to the kidneys, which can cause rupture or damage to the filtering action, or by scarring, and thus damaging, the tiny blood vessels in the kidneys.
Besides affecting the above mentioned bodily organs and functions, high blood pressure also causes bone loss, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, and other health risks. Thus, it is important to monitor your blood pressure closely, especially if you are predisposed to the disease.
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