Danger level: High

What is it?

Hypertension is an elevated level of the blood pressure, which can lead to serious complications.

Who gets it?

Hypertension affects about 60 million people in the US (30% of the population), and about 1 billion worldwide. It’s been estimated that hypertension is responsible for 6% of deaths worldwide.

The older you are, the more likely you are to have hypertension (after age 60, about 65% of the population has it).

There are certain risk factors which increase your risk of having a hypertension. These include:

1. Obesity – The more overweight your are, the more likely you are to get hypertension.
2. Eating foods rich in salt.
3. Having a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.
4. African American origin.
5. Being sedentary – Not doing any physical activity can raise your risk
6. Drinking alcohol excessively
7. Smoking
8. Using certain medications

What causes it?

First of all, what is a blood pressure?

It’s the force of blood pushing against our arteries as the blood flows through the body. You can understand it better if you think about a garden hose. As more water passes through the hose at a certain time, the more force works against the hose. This can damage the hose, or in real life, damage the blood vessels.

The reason for the development of hypertension in a person isn’t always known. Most of the time (95% of cases), the cause is unknown. In such cases, the condition is called essential hypertension.

The other, less common, type of hypertension is called secondary hypertension, since it’s secondary to other conditions. Causes here include Cushing’s syndrome, sleep apnea, drugs, kidney diseases, pheochromocytoma, thyroid problems and others (we will cover all of those in the future).

How does it feel?

That’s the main problem: Usually you don’t feel a hypertension. That’s why it’s been called “the silent killer” – you may walk around not knowing you have it until something happens.

That’s why regular checkup at your doctor’s office are important.

How is it discovered?

The doctor uses a cuff which they put around your arm to measure your blood pressure.

A blood pressure cuff.

When measured, the blood pressure appears as 2 numbers: The first (and higher) one is called the systolic blood pressure (this is the pressure that is measured when the heart beats and fills the arteries with blood). The second one is called the diastolic blood pressure (the pressure that’s measured when the heart rests between beats).

Generally speaking, when you have a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or higher (taken at least twice) you are said to have a high blood pressure.

How is it treated?

Treating a high blood pressure contains a few stages:

First – Modifying your lifestyle

Before starting with drugs, hypertension is usually treated first with lifestyle modifications. These include:

1. Weight loss – In people who are overweight or obese.
2. Starting a healthy diet – The diet recommended for people with hypertension is called the DASH diet (short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). This diet is rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products, with reduced fats.
3. Taking off salts in your diet
4. Physical activity
5. Drinking less alcohol

Each of these things can contribute to lowering your blood pressure. If that’s not enough, the next step follows.

Second – Medications

There are many types of drugs to treat hypertension, and they are beyond the scope of this article. Your doctor will recommend which ones to start with, and what drugs to add if the first one doesn’t do the trick.

What happens after treatment?

If the blood pressure is treated, everything is fine and dandy. The problem is, a lot of people don’t stick to their pills. Like we said above – you don’t feel hypertension, so why should you stick with those pills (and their side effects)?

Which takes us to the “silent killer” part. Untreated, hypertension can cause damage to organs in our body:

1. The heart – Hypertension can lead to atherosclerosis and heart attacks.
2. The brain – Hypertension can lead to strokes, especially those caused by bleeding to the brain.
3. The kidneys – Hypertension can lead to kidney failure.

Yes, 30% of the population has a high blood pressure. It doesn’t mean that YOU have to be one of them. There are certain things you can do today to lower your risk of developing hypertension:

1. Maintaining a normal weight – Your target BMI should be 18.5 to 24.9 (for explanations about that and for a starter’s guide for losing weight, you can visit our article about using the Internet to lose weight).
2. Reducing salt in your diet – The nutrition labels on foods you buy can help you. You should aim at less than 2,300mg of sodium (salt) a day. This is the equivalent of about 1 teaspoon of salt.
3. Exercising – For at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.
4. Limiting your alcohol intake – To 2 drinks a day if you’re a man or 1 if you’re a woman.
5. Following the DASH diet

This video sums it up (it talks mostly about Canada, but applies to every country) -

Got any tips of your own? Share them in the comments.

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