Do you usually get your blood pressure checked regularly by a healthcare practitioner? If you do not check your blood pressure level regularly, you may not know you have hypertension. High blood pressure specialists recommend that untreated high blood pressure will cause many serious problems in your body. If you want to protect your health from hypertension, you need to take a look at signs and symptoms of hypertension to determine whether or not you have hypertension. I’m Hang Pham, an author from the site Vkool.com, and I made this article to show you effects of high blood pressure on the entire body, and how to control it.
Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Brain, Eyes, Kidneys, Arteries & Heart – What Will You Do To Control Your Hypertension?
Hypertension (high blood pressure) can silently damage our body for many years before symptoms develop. If this disease does not be controlled, we may wind up with a poor quality of life, a disability, or even a fatal heart attack. Luckily, with lifestyle changes and treatment, we can control our high blood pressure to lower our risk of life-threatening complications. Take a look at the complications that high blood pressure can cause when it is not effectively controlled.
I. Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Brain
High blood pressure is one of the most important factors that cause stroke. Very high pressure level will cause a break in weakened blood vessels that then bleed in the brain. This will cause a stroke.
In addition, if a blood clot blocks a narrowed artery, it can also lead to a stroke. Just like our heart, our brain depends on a supply of nourishing blood to work appropriately and survive. However, the high level of blood pressure will cause several problems such as:
1. Mild Cognitive Impairment
This is a transition stage between the changes in memory and understanding that is associated with aging and more-serious problems. This condition may be caused by blocked blood that flows to the brain when high blood pressure harms arteries.
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2. Dementia
This is a brain disease that results in problems with thinking, reasoning, speaking, vision, memory and movement. There are a lot of factors that cause dementia. Vascular dementia can result from narrowing as well as blockage of the arteries, which supply blood to the brain. It may also result from strokes that are caused by an interruption of the blood flow to the brain. In two cases, high blood pressure can be the culprit.
3. Stroke
A stroke occurs when a part of your brain is deprived of nutrients and oxygen, this causes brain cells to die. When high blood pressure is uncontrolled, it can lead to stroke by weakening and damaging blood vessels of your brain, causing them to rupture, narrow or leak. High blood pressure may also cause the forming of blood clots in the arteries that lead to your brain, block blood flow and potentially cause a stroke.
4. TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack)
This condition also is called ministroke or a transient ischemic attack, a temporary disruption of nourishing blood supply to our brain. It is often caused by a blood clot or an atherosclerosis – both of which may arise from our high blood pressure. A TIA (transient ischemic attack) is often a warning sign that you are at risk of the full-blown stroke.
Recommended reading: The Blood Pressure Solution book – a guidebook of Ken Burge for dealing with high blood pressure
Keep reading this article to discover other effects of high blood pressure on the body
II. Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Eyes
High blood pressure can sooner or later cause blood vessels in the eyes to bleed or burst. Vision can be blurred or otherwise impaired and can lead to blindness. Delicate and tiny blood vessels supply the blood to our eyes. Like almost other vessels, they can also be affected or damaged by high blood pressure.
1. Optic Neuropathy Or Nerve Damage
This is an eye problem in which the blocked blood flow damages the optic nerve. This condition may kill your eyes’ nerve cells, which can cause bleeding within your eyes or lead to vision loss.
2. Choroidopathy Or Fluid Buildup Under The Retina
In this condition, the fluid builds up under the retina as a result of a leaky blood vessel in the layer of blood vessels that are located under the retina. In addition, fluid buildup under the retina can lead to distorted vision or in some special cases, it results in scarring that impairs vision.
3. Retinopathy Or Eye Blood Vessel Damage
The high level of blood pressure may damage the vessels that supply blood to the retina, causing retinopathy. It can also lead to bleeding in your eye, blurred vision and even complete loss of vision. In case you have both high blood pressure and diabetes, you are at an even greater risk.
Recommended reading: How To Naturally Reduce And Help High Blood Pressure book – a book that consists of the best advice for hypertension sufferers.
You will discover more about effects of high blood pressure on other parts of body in the next part of this article.
III. Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Arteries
As you get older, your arteries throughout your body become hard, especially arteries in your kidneys, your brain, and your heart. High blood pressure is linked to the “stiffer” arteries and it makes your kidneys and your heart work harder. Healthy arteries are strong, and flexible, elastic and strong.
The inner lining of these healthy arteries is smooth so that blood can flow freely, and then supply vital organs as well as tissues with adequate oxygen and nutrients. In case you get high blood pressure, your increased pressure of blood flows through your arteries steadily can cause some serious problems, including:
1. Aneurysm
When the pressure of blood moves through a weakened artery, it causes a section of its wall to widen and create a bulge called aneurysm. The aneurysm is a condition that potentially ruptures and causes life-threatening internal bleeding. The aneurysm can also form in every artery throughout the body, but it is most common in the aorta, a largest artery of the body.
2. Artery Damage And Narrowing
When you have hypertension, this condition can hurt the cells of the inner lining of your arteries. This launches a cascade of events, which make artery walls become stiff and thick, a disease known as arteriosclerosis (or called hardening of the arteries). The Fats from your daily diet enter the bloodstream, then pass through the damaged cells and finally collect to form atherosclerosis. These important changes may affect to arteries throughout the body, make blocking blood flow to the heart, brain, kidneys, legs and arms. The damage may also result in many other problems such as angina or chest pain, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, aneurysms, eye damage, and blocked arteries in your arms and legs (called peripheral artery disease).
Recommended reading: 11 Home Remedies To Lower High Blood Pressure For A Healthy Life
IV. Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Kidney
The kidneys work as filters to eliminate wastes of the body. Over time, hypertension may thicken and narrow your kidneys’ blood vessels. This makes your kidneys filter less fluid, leads to waste building up in the blood. The kidneys can fail altogether.
When this condition happens, 2 common medical treatments like dialysis and kidney transplant can be needed. Besides, kidneys play a role important that helps filter excess waste and fluid from the blood – a process, which depends on your healthy blood vessels. Hypertension may injure the blood vessels and functions of kidneys. It causes several types of kidney disease. If you have diabetes and high blood pressure, your health can become worsen.
1. Kidney Artery Aneurysm
The aneurysm is a bulge in your blood vessel’s wall. When bulge condition occurs in an artery, this leads to a kidney artery aneurysm. High blood pressure in a weakened artery will cause a section to widen and form a bulge called the aneurysm.
Recommended reading: All Natural Kidney Health And Kidney Function Restoration Program
2. Kidney Failure
Kidney failure can be the result from many factors in which hypertension is one of main causes. That is because high blood pressure can damage 2 large arteries, leading to your kidneys become weak and forming the tiny blood vessels (or called glomeruli) within the your kidneys.
3. Glomerulosclerosis Or Kidney Scarring
Kidney scarring is a type of kidney damage that is caused by hypertension. When hypertension cannot be controlled, it can make your kidneys unable to filter waste or toxins effectively.
Recommended reading: Blood Pressure Reduction Guide – the book will teach you how to control high blood pressure
V. Effects Of High Blood Pressure On The Heart
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack. Once you cannot control high blood pressure, it can damage your heart in some ways including:
1. Congestive Heart Failure
High blood pressure is one of the risk factors for congestive heart failure. Congestive heart failure is a serious disease in which your heart is unable to pump enough the blood to supply your body’s needs. If you want to know more about negative effects of high blood pressure on the heart, continue reading this article.
2. Enlarged Left Heart
Hypertension makes our heart working harder than necessary to pump the blood to the rest of our body. This condition may cause the left ventricle to stiffen or thicken (left ventricular hypertrophy). As a result, these changes limit our ventricle’s ability to pump the blood to our body. Finally, this condition increases our risk of heart failure, heart attack, or sudden cardiac death.
3. Coronary Artery Disease
This disease affects to the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. Arteries that are narrowed by coronary artery disease do not allow blood to flow regularly through the arteries. When blood cannot flow freely to the heart, you may suffer a heart attack, a chest pain, or arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms).
Recommended reading: Conquer Low Platelets book – a guidebook that helps you deal with blood diseases
VI. Tips And Advice For Controlling High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure not only affects to heart, kidney, brain, eyes and arteries, but it also causes the complications on other parts of body. To help you prevent diseases and conditions linked to high blood pressure, I will show you some proven hypertension management tips and advice from hypertension specialists including:
1. Lose Extra Pounds And Keep An Eye On Your Waistline
Experts say that blood pressure usually increases as weight increases; therefore, losing just 4.5 kilograms or 10 pounds will help reduce your blood pressure.
In addition, losing fat can make blood pressure medications you are taking more effective. Your doctor can help you determine your target weight and give you the best way to achieve it. Besides losing pounds, you need to keep an eye on your waistline. Because, carrying too many weights around your waist will put you at the higher risk of high blood pressure.
Recommended reading: 30 Days To Thin PDF – a guidebook that covers a Christina Clark’s diet plan to burn stubborn fat
2. Eat A Healthy Diet
According to recommendations of hypertension specialists, eating a diet, which is rich in vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and fruits, and which is skimps on cholesterol and saturated fat can decrease your blood pressure level by up to 14 mm Hg. This eating plan is known as the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet).
3. Exercise Regularly
If you take part in regular physical activities at least 30 minutes per day, you can reduce your blood pressure levels by 4 to 9 millimeters of mm Hg. In addition, if you increase your exercise level, you will reduce your blood pressure levels within just a few weeks. In case you have prehypertension, exercise will assist you in avoiding developing full-blown hypertension.
4. Reduce Sodium In Your Diet
A small drop in the sodium in your diet will help reduce blood pressure level by 2 to 8 mm Hg. The recommendations for lowering sodium are limiting sodium to 2,300 mg a day, or a lower sodium level under 1,500 mg a day for people 51 year olds or older.
5. Limit The Amount Of Alcohol You Drink
Alcohol may be both bad and good for your health. If you drink in small amounts, it can potentially reduce your blood pressure by 2 to 4 mm Hg.
6. Reduce Your Stress, Cut Back On Caffeine And Avoid Tobacco Products And Secondhand Smoke
The nicotine in tobacco products will raise your blood pressure level by 10 mm Hg about an hour after you smoke. Drinking caffeinated beverages may temporarily lead to a spike in the blood pressure level, but it is unclear whether the effect is long lasting or temporary. In addition, anxiety or stress can boost blood pressure level temporarily. You should take some time to think about what make you feel stressed, such as finances, work, family, or illness. When you know what is causing your stress or anxiety, you can get rid of it easier.
For additional tips on how to prevent high blood pressure, see: The High Blood Pressure Remedy Report
To see all of our articles on simple exercise tips, natural routines, and proven methods for improving overall health and boosting energy that people can apply at home, go to our main Home Health page.
After reading my overview of effects of high blood pressure on the body, I hope that it helps you understand potential damages that hypertension can cause for your health. I also show you some simple and easy ways to control high blood pressure before it damages parts of body. This post is part of a series about exercise tips, natural routines, and prevention methods for common diseases. Got a question? Need answers? Leave a comment below. Now are you ready to protect your health from high blood pressure before it is too late?
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