the hidden dangers of high blood pressure

Long-term exposure to high blood pressure, or hypertension, can have devastating effects on your body. Luckily, there are easy ways to manage your health by educating yourself, understanding your risks and being proactive.

How Hypertension Affects Your Body

Arteries: High blood pressure damages your arteries’ smooth inner lining and reduces their flexibility and strength. Lower elasticity prevents your arteries from delivering oxygen and nutrients to your vital organs. Weakened artery walls may also create a bulge or aneurysm that causes internal bleeding.

Heart: Weak arteries won’t get enough blood flow to your heart and cause chest pains, heart attacks or arrhythmias. High blood pressure also causes your heart to work a lot harder to pump blood through your body, which may cause heart failure.

Brain: High blood pressure disrupts blood flow to the brain, depriving it of oxygen and causing a stroke. It can also narrow your brain’s blood vessels and cause clots in your arteries. That may cause cognitive impairment or vascular dementia.

Kidneys: The blood vessels in and around your kidneys get damaged when they’re exposed to high blood pressure. That reduces your kidneys’ ability to filter excess fluid and waste. An accumulation of these materials may result in kidney failure.

Eyes: You may experience damage to your retinas, impaired or blurry vision, or vision loss if you have high blood pressure. Damaged blood vessels can cause bleeding, fluid build-up and damage to the optic nerve.

Symptoms and Risk Factors

Some people believe frequent sweating, nervousness, headaches and nosebleeds are symptoms of high blood pressure. Unfortunately, there is no scientific evidence to support those claims. The lack of symptoms makes this condition extremely dangerous.

However, there are several risk factors for high blood pressure, including:

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Family history
• Kidney disease
• High cholesterol
• Lack of exercise
• Poor diet
• Excess alcohol or tobacco use
• Stress

Tips to Protect Your Health

• Take your blood pressure daily to keep track of your vitals.
• Visit your doctor if you suspect you have high blood pressure. They can administer a clinical diagnosis and help you manage your condition.
• Get regular exercise several times a week. Cardio exercises help improve blood flow and oxygen levels in the body.
• Eat plenty of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. They’re naturally low in sodium, which will help you control your blood pressure.
• Limit your fast food intake. These quick-fix meals are full of sodium, trans fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Manage your alcohol and tobacco consumption as both contribute to high blood pressure.
• Get plenty of sleep and find healthy ways to manage your stress.

Contact Embassy Healthcare to learn how our nutrition and cardiac services help residents manage their blood pressure and heart health.