A Basic Understanding of High Blood Pressure

The Phrase High Blood Pressure conjures up a variety of things to all people. Common definitions refer to the condition without refereeing to the cause.

Dubbed the Silent Killer because of the insidious way it works away in the background of someone's health. High blood pressure if left untreated and ignored can lead to lethal complications in a wide variety of illnesses.

It has been estimated that in the USA there are potentially 50 million sufferers of Hypertension / High Blood Pressure. In the USA initial investigations would seem to highlight that within the black community 32% off the community how to high blood pressure as opposed to 23% within the White and Hispanic communities

For blacks it would also appear the adverse consequences of high blood pressure were worse. 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%.

In the United States, only an estimated two of three people with high blood pressure 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.

Blood pressure is written as systolic pressure/diastolic pressure-for example, 120/80 mm Hg (millimetres of mercury). This reading is referred to as "120 over 80."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 risks-even within the normal blood pressure range-so these limits are somewhat arbitrary. The limits were established because people with blood pressure above these levels are at increasing risk of complications.

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.

The term for this condition is "isolated systolic hypertension". At the upper end of the spectrum where the blood pressure is over 180/110 and remains so with a lack of associated symptoms then this condition is deemed to be known as "a hypertensive urgency."

Where the blood pressure is particularly severe and in excess of 210/120 mm Hg then the condition is deemed to be known as malignant hypertension. This has only been found to occur in about one half of one percent of all sufferers.

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. Unlike hypertensive urgency, malignant hypertension may produce a variety of severe symptoms. If untreated, malignant hypertension usually leads to death in 3 to 6 months.

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Scott James writes regularly on Living With High Blood Pressure issues and more information on the above can be found at Living With High Blood Pressure ,Living With High Blood Pressure Symptom and also at www.livingwithhighbloodpressure.net/treatment.html


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