Ron’s Wanderings

Moving right along with our series of articles about blood pressure. Today let’s go over, in more detail, some of the symptoms and risks of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects about 80 million Americans. That’s a pretty drastic statistic, when you realize that this disease is the leading cause of heart attack and stroke. When you break that figure down it translates to around one of every four Americans have this disease. It’s actually a little more than that, because as I mentioned before, there are many people who don’t know they have high blood pressure.

This is one of the reasons why I decided to write these articles. I know there are a lot of people who read this blog, and it’s vital that more people become aware. Medical practitioners, especially cardiologists, are alarmed by the increasing mortality rates connected to hypertension, and are stressing the importance of regularly checking blood pressure. Not only will this help to keep people from getting into the dangerous stages, it could also help people to make the lifestyle changes needed to avoid high blood pressure altogether.

Regular monitoring is the only sure way to determine if you have high blood pressure. The usual symptoms — headaches, dizziness, and nosebleeds — are generally associated with other things, and most people just write it off as stress. Some people with mild cases of high blood pressure or hypertension will feel a dull ache or pain as well as numbness at the back of the neck when they wake up in the morning. Other symptoms include: Excessive perspiration; muscle cramps; weakness; frequent urination and rapid or irregular heartbeat (palpitations). There may also be chest pains or tightness near the heart, nausea, swelling of the legs and even memory loss. Again, a multitude of ailments that people tend to associate with other things.

So, learn how to take your own blood pressure. It’s not hard, and with the new digital monitors available today, it has become easier than ever. This is not a case where, “If you don’t know, it won’t hurt you” — it will. This is a “need to know” situation — and monitoring is the best way to know. Don’t think it can’t happen to you — it can happen to anybody.

Hypertension is not caused by a virus or a bacteria. It’s essentially a lifestyle problem, and that’s the reason why it tends to be ignored. People don’t like to change their lifestyle. The people most at risk are those who don’t get much in the way of physical exercise — who eat a diet rich in bad fats, especially animal fats — those who are addicted to sugar and other high cholesterol foods — those who eat foods with a lot of salt — and those who drink too much alcohol.

Your age can also be a factor. As you get older, your risk increases. That’s because your metabolism slows down and your body doesn’t process fats and cholesterol as quickly as it did when you were younger. Men are more likely to get high blood pressure between the ages of 35 and 50 than women, although women will usually be at greater risk after menopause.

Your family history is also a risk factor. If members of your family have had a problem with blood pressure and cholesterol, then you need to be checking yourself carefully. If you are someone who doesn’t get much exercise, check with your doctor and see what sort of program you can handle. Don’t go off on your own as too much exercise can exacerbate this condition. Follow your doctors advice and get in the habit of checking your own blood pressure. Start doing it today.
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Got questions?

Contact me at: http://www.ronrink.com

My email and phone number are at that site. Feel free to contact me. I’m here to help you with your health, nutrition and fitness goals.

Have a healthy and nutritious day!

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Ron

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 8:14 am and is filed under Nutrition and Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.