Hypertension - the basics

Experts are reporting that the levels of Hypertension being reported are changing and that trend levels are being reversed. The incidence of Hypertension, having been in decline over the past three decades is increasing.

In the United States of America they reckon that there are a staggering 50 Million plus people over the age of six who are sufferers of High Blood Pressure (as Hypertension is otherwise known). There are very few diseases quite as sinister or dangerous as High Blood Pressure. The real danger with it is the almost complete absence of any form of external warning sign whatsoever.

If you were to do an analysis of those suffering from High Blood Pressure then you would find that 30 percent of those suffering from it are completely unaware of the fact. It is a frightening fact that if High Blood Pressure is ignored and left untreated and thus goes about its business without treatment then it will cause almost irreparable damage to the body’s internal organs.

Hypertension is the single most important contributor to the incidence of stroke, one of the biggest killer diseases known to man. Hypertension is also the single largest cause of Heart Disease in the USA alone and contributes to over 500,000 deaths a year. How does reducing your lifespan by up to 20 years grab you? That is what could happen if High Blood Pressure is left untreated.

An immediate (or as soon as is possible) positive diagnosis of Hypertension is essential if it exists. Nowadays such is the desire to pick up on incidences of Hypertension at their earliest occurrences that the levels at which Hypertension was considered dangerous have now been lowered and an interim condition of “Pre Hypertension” has now been recognised.

The goal is to try and catch those whose Blood Pressure levels were once deemed to be at the high end of being normal and stop them from becoming sufferers of High Blood Pressure. Sustainable changes to your lifestyle are an important part of the whole new approach to the treatment of High Blood Pressure.

With Hypertension, if we take a base point of 115/75 mm Hg it has been proved that there is a 100 percent increase in the danger of a fatal Heart Attack or Stroke with every 20 point systolic increase or 10 point diastolic increase. The external signs and symptoms of High Blood Pressure may not be that obvious to the lay person, to the expert they can be spotted quite easily. Sometimes all it takes to lower the Blood Pressure levels are lifestyle changes whilst in certain other cases, Medication is required.

With Hypertension nowadays, and with the information that we now have at our disposal there is no reason that it should be the serious medical condition that it once was. The bottom line is that we all probably know someone who either has High Blood Pressure already but we also all know someone who not only has High Blood Pressure but has yet to be diagnosed with it.

Scott James writes on medical matters for High Blood Pressure and also at Living with High Blood Pressure . More details on the above article can be found at http://www.livingwithhighbloodpressure.net/hypertension_the_basics.html

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