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The Causes of Hypertension - What You Should Know About The 'Silent Killer'

By Mike Jennings

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Published: 30Jul2007
Word count: 675
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Do you have any control over whether you will develop high blood pressure? Gaining an understanding of how it can develop will help you to make the right choices in preventing high blood pressure or lowering it once you have the condition.

In most cases, a doctor may not be able to pinpoint the exact cause of your high blood pressure. But several factors are known to increase a patient's hypertension such as obesity or heavy alcohol use which is considered to be three or more a day. Family history of the disease, high salt intake and simply getting older are generally considered a direct cause in developing high blood pressure.

The high blood pressure symptoms are early pulsating headaches behind the eyes, problems with vision, dizziness, nausea and vomiting along with general nervousness. Untreated symptoms can lead to chest pain, stroke, or kidney failure, which are all life threatening conditions.

A number of environmental factors have been implicated in the development of hypertension or high blood pressure. Even a person's occupation, family size, excessive noise exposure and crowding are suspected to be a contributing cause, but sodium intake has received the greatest attention. It is noted that approximately sixty percent of the essential hypertension population is responsive to sodium intake. This is in large part due to the use of salt in preserving most manufactured foodstuffs through canned products and in pre-packaged units readily available at your supermarket.

Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas and its main purpose is to regulate glucose levels in the body but it can also have adverse effects. Insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia have been suggested as being responsible for the increased arterial pressure in some patients with hypertension or high blood pressure. This resistance is now widely recognized as part of syndrome X, or the metabolic syndrome.

Pulmonary hypertension involves the artery leading from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs. When plaque builds up in this vital artery, the lungs cannot get the necessary oxygen mixture into the flow of blood through the body placing the patient at risk for pulmonary artery necrosis or the dying of tissue.

Hypertension is one of the most common complex genetic disorders with genetic heritability averaging at a thirty percent risk factor. Studies with animals and humans support the concept that inheritance is probably multifactorial. A large number of different genetic defects each have an elevated blood pressure as one of their phenotypic expressions.

Only in a small minority of patients with elevated arterial pressure can be identified as hypertension in specific cause. These patients will have either an endocrine or renal defect that if corrected could bring blood pressure back to normal values. A simple explanation for renal vascular hypertension is that decreased perfusion of renal tissue due to stenosis of a main or branch artery activates the rennin-angiotensin system.

Pregnancy is also a cause of high blood pressure. Although few women of childbearing age have high blood pressure, up to ten percent develop hypertension during pregnancy. While usually benign, it may herald three complications: pre-eclampsia, HELLP syndrome and eclampsia. This condition can be controlled with medication. For this reason, it is imperative to the health of mother and child that the expectant mother's blood pressure be monitored by the attending obstetrician.

Once the diagnosis of hypertension has been made it is important to attempt to exclude or identify reversible causes. Over ninety percent of adult high blood pressure has no clear cause but it can occur in combination with diabetes mellitus or Type 2 diabetes or obesity. Regular checkup with your primary physician are important in the early diagnosis of this crippling disease.

A sedentary lifestyle, stress, low potassium intake, low calcium intake, low magnesium intake and resistance to insulin may also cause your blood pressure to rise. By adjusting your life style, salt intake, adding the needed nutrients of these minerals to your diet and concentrating on a regular exercise regime, a normal or slightly low blood pressure reading can be achieved.

Check out further information from Michael Jennings on preventing hypertension, the "silent killer", and how to monitor your blood pressure and living with hypertension on a daily basis at ==> www.monitor-blood-pressure.com

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