Hypertension

By: JT Lenga 


Hello readers, Another interesting topic for you this week. The past couple of weeks I have been doing a lot of online research on Hypertension. This is a hot topic for many people struggle with. Hypertension is a medical term that means the pressure of a person's blood is increasing to a point where it is so high that it can damage their heart and blood vessels. A person's blood pressure depends on the amount of resistance in a persons blood vessels. This resistance is caused by the narrowing of the arteries. With the narrowing of vessels your heart will still try to pump the same volume of blood through your vessels. Think of it as if you have a running hose and you slowly start to kink it in the middle. Less and less water will come out of the hose and the pressure in the hose will increase, causing possible damage to the hose. 

There is no single cause of hypertension, there are several causes. Some of these causes are poor diet, lack of physical activity, age, smoking, stress, etc... These are all things that can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure. Unfortunately some of the are harder to control than others. 

High blood pressure can also lead to a great variety of other physiological diseases. These diseases include Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, cancer, and kidney damage. This is only a few of the possible complication that having hypertension can lead to. 

Now your probably wondering what can we do to prevent hypertension, and reduce our risk of developing the associated diseases. There are a few key ways to prevent hypertension. Getting enough physical activity can help to reduce the amount of fat that floats around in your blood, thus reducing possible blood clots. Having a well balanced and healthy diet can help. Working with positive stress relief techniques in order to calm yourself. Developing a healthier lifestyle in general greatly reduces your chances of developing hypertension. 

The topic  this week was interesting for me to go out and research. I currently have a couple of family members in the hospital due to diseases associated with high blood pressure. It's pretty scary knowing that something like this can lead to other more dangerous things. Doing the research has helped me to understand what is going on with them. If you have someone in your life that has high blood pressure I encourage you to motivate them into living a healthier life. 

References

"Blood Pressure Animation | Heart Disease Risk Factors". Youtube, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOwBDmu1Y0c.

Cold, Flu & Cough et al. "Causes Of High Blood Pressure". Webmd, http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/guide/blood-pressure-causes#1.

"High Blood Pressure - Google Search". Google.Com, https://www.google.com/search?q=high+blood+pressure&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiG7IGc-u3SAhVMyoMKHY8BA_gQ_AUICCgB&biw=1038&bih=639#imgrc=D23ZPFLGXtvbTM:.

"High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Complications - Mayo Clinic". Mayo Clinic, 2016, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/basics/complications/con-20019580.