How is high blood pressure defined?
High blood pressure doesn't cause any symptoms or immediate problems. This means that, in most cases, the only way you'll know if you're suffering from hypertension is if your doctor measures your blood pressure over a period of time to establish if you have a persistent problem.
Stressed, being overweight, or drinking too much
Measuring blood pressure allows medical experts to understand the amount of pressure exerted on the artery walls when blood moves through them. It's important to monitor this, because you can only be diagnosed with high blood pressure if your results are consistently high.
What causes high blood pressure?
High blood pressure can be split into two types: primary and secondary. Primary hypertension has no identifiable cause, but secondary hypertension is caused directly by an underlying health issue or as a side effect of some medications.
Whilst primary blood pressure doesn't have a specific cause, there are many factors that can increase your risk of developing it. These include a history of hypertension in the family, eating food that's high in fat or salt, not exercising enough, being stressed, being overweight, or drinking too much.
Secondary blood pressure can be caused by health problems ranging from conditions that affect the body's tissue, such as lupus; to taking certain medications like ibuprofen; and to hormonal conditions, such as Cushing's syndrome.
What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?
Whilst hypertension doesn't cause obvious symptoms, there are a number of ways your body will respond to high blood pressure that could be considered warnings. The only way to know for certain is to have your blood pressure checked by a doctor, who will be able to diagnose you accurately.
In very rare cases, high blood pressure symptoms will include a headache, blurred or double vision, nosebleed, shortness of breath or even female sexual dysfunction. If you have any of these symptoms, you should see your doctor immediately.
What impact can high blood pressure have on your health?
High blood pressure means that your heart has to work harder to pump blood around your body, which can weaken your heart over time. It's important that you strive to lower your blood pressure because leaving hypertension untreated can damage your arteries, either causing a blockage or splitting them, which is known as haemorrhaging.
If left untreated, high blood pressure can cause a number of health problems. The kinds of cardiovascular diseases caused by hypertension include:
- Stroke - when blood supply to the brain is disturbed
- Heart attack - when blood supply to the heart is blocked
- Blood clot (also known as thrombosis) - clots within blood vessels
- Aneurysm - a bulge in a blood vessel caused by weakened walls
Pregnant women must have their blood pressure checked regularly, even if it isn't high. This is done to prevent the risk of developing pregnancy-induced hypertension, because it can lead to pre-eclampsia, where there is a problem with the placenta.
What treatment methods are available?
If your blood pressure is slightly higher than the ideal level of 120/80mmHg, it's likely that your doctor will advise you to make simple lifestyle changes to help reduce it. If your blood pressure sits above the indicator for hypertension, which stands at 140/90mmHg, and your doctor thinks you're at risk of developing heart disease in the next ten years, you'll be prescribed medication and advised to change your lifestyle to help lower your high blood pressure.
Prescription medications
There are a few medications that you might be prescribed to help lower high blood pressure. Whilst these medications work in different ways they all have the same outcome, which is to relax and widen the blood vessels. This means that blood can flow more easily around the body, so the heart doesn't have to contract as hard, which lowers blood pressure.
The medications that are available and which help to lower high blood pressure include:
- Amlodipine, which blocks the transport of calcium into the muscle cells lining the arteries, and is prescribed to help prevent angina and lower cholesterol.
- Bendroflumethiazide, a thiazide diuretic, known as 'water tablets', which cut the amount of excess water in the body and reduce water retention.
- Lisinopril, which inhibits the work of an enzyme that helps to control blood pressure, preventing the vessels from tightening. It is also prescribed to improve the symptoms of heart failure and boost survival after a heart attack.
- Ramipril, which works in the same way as Lisinopril, but is also prescribed to help treat heart failure, prevent heart attacks and strokes and improve the kidney problems that are associated with diabetes.
- Sevikar HCT, which contains active ingredients to lower cholesterol and prevent angina (amlodipine), prevent the peripheral blood vessels from narrowing (olmesartan medoxomil) and reduce the kidneys' ability for water retention (hydrochlorothiazide).