High blood pressure is on the increase. This has, largely, been attributed to the widespread availability of fast food, the reduction in the consumption of wholesome, healthy food and the increase in the number of people who have inactive lifestyle.
High blood pressure occurs when your blood exerts a continual, abnormally high pressure on your circulatory system. Left unchecked high blood pressure can cause severe medical problems such as serious heart problems, kidney damage, strokes and eye problems.
We outline here, in simple terms, what high blood pressure is. We look at the risk factors associated with high blood, and highlight the lifestyle changes that can help to reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure.
Blood pressure is the force of the blood on the artery walls that occurs when it is pumped from the heart around the body. The heart is made up of 4 chambers: left and right atria (singular: atrium), and left and right ventricles. During each heart beat the heart contracts. Simply speaking, the heart pumps oxygen rich (‘oxygenated”) blood from the lungs into the left atrium. When the heart contracts the blood is pumped into the left ventricle. The left ventricle then shoots the blood up into the aorta through which oxygen and vital nutrients are carried to the rest of the body. The oxygen in the blood is then taken up by the tissues and organs and is replaced by carbon monoxide. The ‘deoxygenated’ blood is carried to the right atrium via the veins. This blood is then passed to the lungs where is receives more oxygen.
Blood pressure is measured in the form of 2 numbers one over the other. The top number is known as the systolic pressure. This measures the pressure in the arteries that occurs when the heart is forcing blood through them. The bottom number is known as the diastolic pressure. This measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart is relaxing.
Blood pressure is said to be ‘normal’ when the systolic pressure is around 120 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and the diastolic pressure is around 80 mmHg. High blood pressure or ‘hypertension’ is generally defined as systolic blood pressure of over 140 mmHg and a diastolic pressure of more than 90mmHg.
As mentioned above, if untreated high blood pressure can cause a number of medical problems. It is, therefore, very important to be aware of the risk factors. These include: a diet that is too high in salt (more than 1 teaspoon of salt per day), being overweight, drinking too much alcohol, not exercising enough, a diet that lacks fresh fruit and vegetables.
If any of these risk factors relate to you, then it really important that you make the necessary lifestyle changes to reduce your risk of high blood pressure. It is recommended that you carry out at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days (you should build this up gradually, if you a currently relatively inactive; eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetable per day; keep salt to a minimum and drink alcohol in moderation.
There are other risk factors that can’t be changed. These include: old age (high blood pressure tends to increase as people get older), family history of high blood pressure, gender (high blood pressure is little bit more common in men than women) and ethnicity (high blood pressure tends to be more prevalent in certain ethnic groups).
The bottom line is that you need to reduce the modifiable risks to a minimum. Unfortunately, for some people reducing these may not protect them completely from high blood pressure. The good news is that doctors have a whole host of drugs at their disposal that control blood pressure. The important thing is to ensure that you get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis.
We have highlighted that the overall changes in eating patterns and the increasing tendency towards inactive lifestyles is causing high blood pressure to be a growing problem. We’ve also outlined some of the risk factors, which contribute to high blood pressure, and recommended that steps be taken to reduce these risks to a minimum. Lastly, we’ve stressed that it is important that you get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis.
Michael RussellYour Independent guide to Hypertension
