A Basic Understanding of High Blood Pressure.
By: floydthursby
To many people, the word hypertension suggests excessive tension, nervousness, or stress.In medical terms, hypertension refers to high blood pressure, regardless of the cause.
Because it usually does not cause symptoms for many yearsuntil a vital organ is damagedit has been called “the silent killer.” High blood pressure if left untreated and ignored can lead to lethal complications in a wide variety of illnesses.More than 50 million Americans are estimated to have high blood pressure.
In the USA initial investigations would seem to highlight that within the black community 32% off the community have high blood pressure as opposed to 23% within the White and Hispanic communities.Also, the consequences of high blood pressure are worse for blacks.
There is no doubt about that at high blood pressure does increase as we age with the figure is called 75% of women and 66% of men over the age of 75 being treated for high blood pressure. For those suffering with clinical obesity the incidences of high blood pressure rise by 200%.
Within the USA it has been calculated that possibly only two thirds of the people suffering from hypertension have been diagnosed.Of these people, about 75% receive drug treatment, and of these, about 45% receive adequate treatment.
Two terms are used when calculating high blood pressure, the systolic which is the first and greater of the two figures and refers to the highest pressure of the Arteries. The diastolic figure is the second figure calculated and represents the pressure in the hall product to the process of contraction again.
The traditional way of reporting blood pressure figures is calculated in millimetres of mercury and described as the systolic over the diastolic (120 over 80 etc). High blood pressure is defined as a systolic pressure at rest that averages 140 mm Hg or more, a diastolic pressure at rest that averages 90 mm Hg or more, or both.
However, the higher the blood pressure, the greater the riskseven within the normal blood pressure rangeso these limits are somewhat arbitrary.The limits were established because people with blood pressure above these levels are at increasing risk of complications.
The bottom line with most suffers of hypertension is that by and large they have raised systolic and diastolic figures. The one major exception to this widely accepted approach towards blood pressure is when it is arising through increased age whereby it is not uncommon to see a raised systolic pressure alongside a normal diastolic figure.
This disorder is called isolated systolic hypertension. Where the blood pressure is in excess of 180/110 mm Hg and there is an absence of associate symptoms then the entire condition is referred to as a hypertensive urgency.
There has been an additional condition recognized as malignant hypertension and this occurs when blood pressure readings are in excess of 210/120 mm Hg. This additional condition has only been known to occur in approximately 1 out of every 200 incidences of high blood pressure.
However, it is several times more common among blacks than among whites, among men than among women, and among people in lower socioeconomic groups than among those in higher socioeconomic groups. This type of hypertension is unlike hypertensive urgency in that it produces a variety of severe symptoms. If untreated, malignant hypertension usually leads to death in 3 to 6 months.
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