HTN
Hypertension – What is it? High blood pressure is often called the ‘silent killer’ because it usually has no noticeable warning signs or symptoms until other serious problems arise. That’s why a lot of people with high blood pressure don’t even know that they have it. It’s no joke and needs to be taken seriously by everyone, including those that don’t have it.
There are two types of high blood pressure, or, hypertension.
Essential hypertension-in most cases, high blood pressure does not have a specific treatable cause. This form is called essential hypertension.
Secondary hypertension-in a few cases, the cause of hypertension is some other underlying condition. This is called secondary hypertension. This may be due to kidney disorders, congenital abnormalities, or other conditions. Blood pressure usually returns to normal when the problem is corrected.
Blood pressure is a measurement of the force of blood against the walls of arteries. It shows how hard your heart has to work to push blood through your arteries, and so, to the rest of your body. High blood pressure is an indication that there is a lot of resistance in your arteries, for one reason, or another. If there is too much arterial resistance in your system, your heart has to pump harder to get the blood out to the body. Just like you, your heart doesn’t want to work harder than it has to.
What the heck is arterial resistance? This just means that there’s not enough room in your arteries for your blood to flow through efficiently. This can be caused by blockages or by constriction, or narrowing, of your arteries. Think of it this way: Your arteries are like a garden hose with a nozzle at the end of it. When you turn on the water and you have the nozzle wide open, the water just sort of flows gently out of it. When you constrict the nozzle or close it off (or even if you block the nozzle with your finger or thumb), the water shoots out at a higher speed. That’s what happens in your arteries with the resistance. With little resistance (which is normal), or when the nozzle is wide open, the blood flows gently and the heart doesn’t have to pump that hard. With increased resistance and the nozzle turned tight, the arteries are blocked or narrowed (not normal) and the heart has to work harder to pump the blood.
We all like the high powered hoses because we are able to clean things off a lot better. But the reason why that is, is because of the pressure that is built up in the hose. The pressure makes washing your car a snap. But the higher pressure in our arteries can cause a lot of problems in our bodies. Just like when the pressure in anything gets to be too much to handle, it blows. The same happens in our bodies when our blood pressure gets high and stays high.
Blood pressure is recorded as two numbers-the systolic (top number) pressure (as the heart beats) is written on top of the diastolic (bottom number) pressure (as the heart relaxes between beats). It is measured by any variety of blood pressure cuffs. The measurement is written one above or in front of the other, with the systolic number first and the diastolic number second and are easily read and understood by most everybody. For example, people call a blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) “120 over 80″.
Blood pressure is usually taken and measured with something called a sphygmomanometer. An inflatable cuff is wrapped around the arm and is inflated to squeeze the blood vessels in the arm. The healthcare worker uses a stethoscope (the thing they put in their ears) to listen to your pulse as the pressure around the arm is released. This is done to determine the systolic and diastolic pressure. Some machines that measure blood pressure are electronic now. They provide digital readouts of the blood pressure and pulse rate.
Your blood pressure normally rises and falls throughout the day. When it stays too high for too long, they call it hypertension. Your blood pressure usually falls into one of these categories:
• High blood pressure or hypertension for adults is defined as a systolic (or top) blood pressure number of 140 mmHg or higher or a diastolic (or bottom number) blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher.
• Normal blood pressure is a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure of less than 80 mmHg.
• Prehypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg. Persons with prehypertension are at increased risk to progress to hypertension.
If the systolic and diastolic blood pressure numbers are in different categories, your blood pressure is defined according to the higher category. For instance, if you have a high systolic pressure but a normal diastolic pressure, you will be considered to have high blood pressure (sometimes referred to as systolic hypertension). If you have a high diastolic pressure but a normal systolic pressure will be considered to have high blood pressure also (sometimes referred to as diastolic hypertension).
High blood pressure for adults will usually be measured on at least two different doctor visits before they diagnose you with hypertension.
People have been taking blood pressures for a long time, but it has only been in the past hundred years or so that we have really understood 1) just how important the blood pressure is to good health and how it affect us, and 2) how we can effectively treat it using different techniques and approaches.
