What Causes High Blood Pressure ?

What Causes High Blood Pressure? 

What are the causes of high blood pressure?

Is your blood pressure under control?

Have you recently taken your blood pressure readings?

If the answer to the above questions is NO, you seriously need to pay more attention to your health. For example, we live in a world where an estimated 1.28 billion adults between the age of 30-79 years have hypertension: if this data is not enough, WHO shared that an estimated 46% of people are unaware that they suffer from hypertension.

World hypertension day is observed every 17th of May to create awareness about hypertension and its causes and prevention. The theme for world hypertension day 2022 is “measure your blood pressure accurately, control it, and live longer.”

The theme’s primary focus is to increase awareness of the importance of measuring high blood pressure and being aware of its regular readings.

Why hypertension is also known as the “Silent Killer.’

It’s difficult for us as humans to accept that something is wrong with us. It becomes even more difficult when you cannot feel what’s wrong with your body. Hypertension usually exhibits no symptoms at all. This makes it difficult to detect and treat.

Another factor that makes hypertension more dangerous is the chronic nature of the condition. Initially, even post-diagnosis, people tend to forget they are hypertensive and carry out a normal lifestyle until there happens to be a complication related to hypertension.

In total, symptoms of the disease make it more acceptable and relatable to remember and be aware of the condition. Hypertension being silent slowly puts you at a higher risk for heart disease, heart failure, and stroke, among other things.

Know the risk factors:-

Certain factors put you at a higher risk of hypertension and related complications. Unfortunately, few of these risk factors are modifiable, but the rest are not in control, like family history, advancing age, etc.; what you can take control of needs to be addressed.

1. Being overweight:-

Too much weight puts an additional load on your heart and circulatory system, leading to major health issues. It also raises your chances of getting heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure.

2. A poor diet, particularly one rich in sodium:-

Your health depends on getting enough nutrients from a variety of sources. For example, a high-salt diet and one heavy in calories, saturated and trans fats, and sugar increase the risk of high blood pressure. But on the other hand, making good eating choices can assist in lowering blood pressure.

3. Drinking too much alcohol:-

Drinking too much alcohol daily can lead to various health issues, including heart failure, stroke, and an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). In addition, it can substantially raise your blood pressure and increase your chances of cancer, obesity, alcoholism, suicide, and accidents.

4. Stress:

Stress is not always a negative experience. However, too much stress might lead to high blood pressure. Furthermore, excessive stress might induce habits that raise blood pressure, such as poor diet, physical inactivity, and excessive use of tobacco or alcohol.

5. Tobacco usage and smoking:-

Smoking puts you on a myriad of health issues. Tobacco use can induce a temporary increase in blood pressure and contribute to artery damage. The artery damage is known as atherosclerosis, which leads to the hardening of blood vessels. In addition, nonsmokers exposed to other people’s smoke are at an increased risk of heart disease

What are the causes of high blood pressure? Take measures and control your blood pressure.

By taking steps to control your high blood pressure, you reduce the future complications of heart disease, kidney issues, and stroke. So let’s take steps in the right direction.

• Limit salt consumption (to less than 5g daily).
• Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables.
• Regularly engaging in physical activity.
• Avoiding Tobacco & Alcohol consumption.
• Limiting the consumption of saturated fat-rich meals.
• Limiting Trans fats in the diet.

Staying aware of your blood pressure numbers is of prime importance and taking measures to keep it within the normal range is essential. Meet your doctors periodically and make sure you take your medication on time.

You can also talk to QurBook's Expert Team of Doctors, dieticians, and care coordinators, who can help you better understand your condition and help you manage it. We hope you got the answer to the question What are the causes of high blood pressure? 

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