Blood Pressure: An Overview

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Article Title: Blood Pressure: An Overview

Author: Taximan

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What is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is a measurement of the pressure exerted by the

circulating blood on the walls of the arteries, veins and

chambers of the heart. The pressure of blood is measured in the

context of systolic and diastolic activities. When the

ventricles in the heart contract, it is termed as a systolic

activity, while the relaxing ventricles mark a diastolic

activity.

The pressure of blood is highest during the systole activity

and lowest during the diastole activity. The unit of measuring

blood pressure is millimeters. A normal blood pressure reading

is 120/80 mmHg.

A normal healthy person maintains the blood pressure reading of

120/80 mmHg. A deviation from this normal reading can result in

a blood pressure disorder. There are basically two abnormal

conditions of blood pressure. They are known as high blood

pressure or hypertension and low blood pressure or hypotension.

High Blood Pressure/ Hypertension

A person is known to suffer from high blood pressure when their

measurement of blood pressure increases over that of a normal

reading. A normal blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg. When this

blood pressure increases to, say 140/ 90 mmHg, the person is

known to have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is often termed as 'a silent killer'. You

might be suffering from a high blood pressure for a long period

of time and not know it at all. When a person develops high

blood pressure, it usually lasts for lifetime.

Why High Blood Pressure?

Your heart pumps the blood and supplies it to the various

organs of your body via arteries. The arteries, when leaving

your heart, narrow into arterioles. The arterioles further

narrow themselves into capillaries. These capillaries supply

oxygen and nutrients to the various body organs.

Due to certain nerve impulses, the arteries become dilated or

contracted. If the arteries become contracted, the passage of

blood is hampered and it increases the pressure of blood. The

condition causes high blood pressure or hypertension. This

condition strains your heart and can even damage your blood

vessels. If the vessels get damaged, the blood supply can

further affect various body organs connected to the damaged

vessels.

The human body generally bears and handles this sudden increase

of pressure for a long period of time. This is one of the sole

reasons for the fact that you can live your whole life, without

any ill-effects or symptoms, from high blood pressure.

Two Forms of High Blood Pressure

There are two forms of high blood pressure, essential

hypertension and secondary hypertension. Around 95 % of

hypertension cases are related to essential hypertension. The

cause of essential hypertension is multifold though.

There are several factors which result in essential

hypertension. One of the major factors is high salt intake.

Other factors that can contribute to the cause of essential

hypertension are tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity,

diabetes mellitus, a sedentary lifestyle and genetic causes.

Secondary hypertension amounts to at least 5 % of the cases of

hypertension. The factors contributing to secondary

hypertension are pregnancy, a slow pulse, drugs, kidney

diseases, certain types of cancers, malformed aorta and aortic

vale disease.

High blood pressure largely remains undetected in its first

stage of occurrence. A person would probably never know about

it. But if the condition of high blood pressure prolongs, it

can cause serious damages to the various body organs. High

blood pressure can directly affect the person in the form of

kidney failure, congestive heart failure or heart attack.

Low Blood Pressure/ Hypotension

In the medical terms, low blood pressure is called hypotension.

A person is said to have low blood pressure disorder, if his

blood pressure falls below the normal reading of 120/80 mmHg.

Why Low Blood Pressure?

There are many causes of low blood pressure. Among the common

cause include acute illness. The condition can be characterized

with the symptoms such as severe blood loss, infection, fluid

loss or damage to the heart. The age-factor plays an important

role in low blood pressure. Increasing age causes your arteries

to stiffen and cause a drop in the pressure of blood.

Damage to adrenal glands can also lead to low blood pressure

conditions. Damage to adrenal glands affects the production of

aldosterone in your body. This hormone controls the salt

amounts in the body. If the aldosterone hormone gets affected,

it leads to the loss of salt from your body, further resulting

in low blood pressure. This causes dizziness when you stand up.

Low blood pressure can also be caused due to the usage of

diuretics.

A person with low blood pressure shows symptoms of chest pain,

headache, prolonged diarrhea or vomiting. The person also

suffers from burning sensation while urination, stiff neck,

high fever and irregular heartbeat. The person, at times,

suffers from shortness of breath and a cough with phlegm.

Normal is healthy!

Neither high blood pressure, nor low blood pressure is good for

your body and health. You should get your blood pressure checked

regularly for either of these two disorders. The proper

treatment and control of your blood pressure will definitely

enable you to live a healthy and happy life!

About The Author: Taximan writes articles on a number of

different topics. For more information on Blood Pressure issues

please visit

http://www.blood-pressure-resources.com/bloodpressure/ and for

additional Blood pressure related articles please visit the

following article page

http://www.blood-pressure-resources.com/bloodpressure-articles/

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