Hypertension can be understood if a little about the science of blood pressure measurement is known.Blood pressure is the equivalent power in millimeters of mercury by which the heart pumps blood around the body.The heart itself is the mechanical pump that discharges under pressure it’s blood content at intervals into the luminal arteries arterioles of the body. The force of it’s muscular contraction depends on the average volume it has to eject and the opposing forces it must overcome to discharge the appropriate quantity everytime it contracts.
The opposing forces are mainly dependent on resisting elastic arterial walls-a direct reflection on healthy or unhealthy blood vessels.Its force of contraction also depends on the state and size of the heart’s distribution network which indirectly means the weight of the individual. And thirdly, the heart’s contraction force still depends on the blood-load itself and this means that the more fluid the blood is,the easier for the heart to effectively distribute it,and the thicker the blood,the more likely the heart will have a problem with it’ ability to pump the blood around.
Moreover,the heart must daily overcome many frictional forces engineered by the combined effects of the roughened arterial walls and the literal ‘road blocks’ and ‘check points’ within and around the organs the heart must supply with blood every moment of the day! In the normal person,these obstructions (technically termed ‘impeadance’ or ‘peripheral resistance’),due to the friction and the arterial wall resistance are almost insignificant in relation to the heart’s normal performances whether in exercise or at rest throughout a lifetime.
But in the hypertensive,the situation is very different:the pressure in each of the four chambers of the heart fluctuates at each stressful effort made by the heart because the load may be too heavy for it(high blood volume from a massive size of the individual) or the resisting arteries may cause too much frictional force due to ageing process or disease states within them.The simple problem in the hypertensive is that the load the heart carries and the path it must take to deliver it to its usual destination is ‘too hard’ and very uncomfortable for it to achieve without its adding more effort.The heart has to put in more effort for every extra load it must carry so as to achieve the feat each time.The effort is a great task for the heart and this means an increased (high) blood pressure task for the heart.
Therefore, by definition, ‘arterial hypertension’ (or ‘systemic hypertension’-for so it is called),is the blood pressure that is persistently high and may reach levels that are high enough to damage many body important organs.But blood pressure measurement allows a good gauge of the expectations of both the non-hypertensive and the hypertensive and allows the good physician to explain to the subject all that it entails for the subject to survive.
Dr Mercolla Bradden is a medical practioner and writes informative articles centered on ‘hypertension'(high blood pressure.).For further information visit: http://highbloodpressuresolution.blogspot.com
