High cholesterol and hypertension are two different things, but they often come together with disastrous consequences. Stroke, heart attack and an assortment of other coronary heart and artery diseases can be caused by high blood pressure resulting from high cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, the most common diet and exercise life style maintained by people in the western world can easily lead straight from high cholesterol levels to high blood pressure, hypertension and on to the more serious life threatening heart diseases.
Hypertension is when your heart has to continuously work too hard to push blood through your body. Unlike healthy exercise, which is a temporary increase in your blood pressure, hypertension is continuous and it literally wears your heart out. The most common medical measurement of hypertension is high blood pressure. So for the majority of cases high blood pressure and hypertension are the same things.
The causes of hypertension are often complicated, numerous and far reaching. In some medically straightforward cases the cause of hypertension is some other illness or disease. For example, diabetes, kidney disease and certain cancerous tumors will directly cause hypertension. But in the majority of cases, hypertension is caused by a half dozen or so different factors. Heredity, salt consumption, obesity and how much caffeine and alcohol you consume are very common contributing factors to hypertension. Even stress at work, at home, your age, race, occupation and how much noise you are exposed to contribute to increasing your blood pressure. But perhaps the most pervasive contributing factor to hypertension in our world today is high cholesterol.
Cholesterol is a necessary part of all the cell membranes in your body so you can’t simply eliminate it from your diet and body. It is essential for the proper functioning of all your cells. The issue with cholesterol is balancing your consumption. Your liver actually manufactures cholesterol. So if you consume a large amount on top of that, it tends to reach unacceptably high levels. The mechanism is complicated but, to put it simply, you are at risk of heart disease if your LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) is high and your HDL cholesterol (high density lipoprotein) is low. High levels of LDL will cause calcium, fatty acids and cholesterol to build up inside arteries. These deposits are commonly called plaque. As your arteries get smaller, your heart has to work too hard to keep up proper blood supply to the rest of your body. If not corrected your heart wears out in any of several ways; either stroke, heart attack, or something similar.
There are lots of things you can do to maintain a healthy cholesterol level. Almost all of it comes under the heading of keeping to a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy life style and exercising regularly. Fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be the corner stone of your diet and not simply items used to supplement a fast food or fatty food diet. Several types of grains, such as oat bran, have been proven to help lower bad cholesterol levels. In general, fast food equals bad food as far as bad cholesterol levels are concerned. You can take medications and drugs that will lower high blood pressure but long term maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle are the keys to controlling hypertension caused by high cholesterol.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Hypertension
