What is Hypertension?
Hypertension means someone having high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the pressure in your blood vessels. Blood pressure is necessary to make sure blood reaches various body parts to provide with nutrition. But when the blood pressure goes higher or lower than normal, it’s not good. The condition where someone’s blood pressure is higher than normal, it is called hypertension. Hypertension or high blood pressure must be checked by a doctor and properly treated. If not treated and controlled, high blood pressure can be serious.
What are hypertension symptoms?
It is not unusual for someone to have hypertension and not have any symptoms. One can only know for sure if one has high blood pressure by checking blood pressure. To check your blood pressure, you will need a blood pressure monitor such as this one. Diabetics are generally advised to monitor blood pressure as hypertension is common in diabetics.
Though you may not feel high blood pressure or experience any clear symptoms of hypertension, a diabetic must watch for certain warning signs of high blood pressure. The warning signs of severe hypertension include a pounding feeling in heart or head, dizziness, severe headaches that cannot be explained. Unexplained fatigue or confusion, poor vision, difficulty in breathing, irregular heartbeat, chest pain etc. also can mean possible high blood pressure. In extreme cases of high blood pressure, people have nose-bleed or blood in urine too.
What causes High blood pressure?
High blood pressure can be the result of a variety of causes. In general, people whose diet is high in salt, fat or cholesterol are at high risk of hypertension. Some health conditions such as diabetes, kidney issues, hormone problems and having high cholesterol in blood can also mean a higher risk of hypertension. Experts say high blood pressure is also hereditary which means, if people in your family or close relation have high blood pressure, you are at risk of hypertension too. Also, people who do not exercise enough also are prone to hypertension and few other life style conditions including heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes etc.
