Hypertension is a common medical condition and the most chronic condition in the United States, affecting about twenty-five percent of the adult population. Because hypertension causes very few symptoms, a considerable amount of people have hypertension and do not know it until it has reached a progressive state. This is why it is so important to have your blood pressure checked on a regular basis. But once you are diagnosed with hypertension, you will have it for the rest of your life and will have to take medicine every day to control it.

If hypertension is left untreated, it can open the door to many health problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision impairment, dementia, and early death by about twenty-five years. It can also cause plaque accumulations around the arterial walls of the heart, decreasing blood flow and possibly causing a heart attack. Although having untreated hypertension can have these medical problems, fifteen percent of the adult population who know they have hypertension will still doing nothing about it.

The chance of being diagnosed with hypertension increases as a person gets older and also depends on a person’s race. For example:

African Americans have about a 33% chance of getting hypertension.
Caucasians have about a 23% chance.
American Indians have about a 21% chance.
Hispanics have about an 18% chance.
Asians or Pacific Islanders have about a 16% chance of getting hypertension.

As with many diseases, family history also plays a role in developing hypertension. If there is a family history of hypertension, it will automatically increase a person’s chance of getting hypertension. Sex should also be taken into consideration; men have a higher chance of developing hypertension if they’re under the age of fifty-five, while women have a higher risk if they’re over the age of fifty-five.

Other factors that may play a role in developing hypertension is being overweight or obesity, diabetes, smoking, drinking an excessive amount of alcohol every day, low potassium levels, heart disease, or even sleep apnea.

There are two types of hypertension- essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. Essential hypertension, or primary high blood pressure, is hypertension with no cause. Causes may be related to genetics or lifestyle. Secondary hypertension is high blood pressure that is caused by another disease such as diabetes, kidney disease, preeclampsia, or a thyroid disorder.

A small percentage of people with hypertension will develop malignant hypertension, a condition in which the blood pressure is so high that it will start to damage the organs.

For someone to be considered borderline hypertensive, one’s reading must range between normal and high or must range higher than 140/90 (the top number is the systolic number, and the bottom number is the diastolic number). If someone diagnosed with diabetes has a blood pressure of 130/80 or higher, they will be at risk for developing hypertension.

If you have hypotension, or low blood pressure, then your doctor may advise you to add a little salt in your diet. However if you have hypertension or are borderline for developing hypertension, then your doctor will advise you to stay away from salt. If there is a lot of salt in your diet, the kidneys (which control the level of salt) cannot keep up and the salt goes into the bloodstream. Salt attracts water and increases the volume of the blood which raises blood pressure.

Other factors that could increase the possibility of one developing hypertension are those who are overweight, frequent alcohol use, smoking, age, family history of hypertension, lack of exercise, stress (and no your blood pressure will not be better if you lower your stress level), and an unhealthy diet. These causes from hypertension can cause a more serious problem if not taken care of- kidney failure. If your kidneys are unable to get rid of the excess waste and fluid from your body, it could raise your blood pressure and can cause kidney failure. When someone has kidney failure from hypertension, the term accelerated hypertension is used.

Preeclampsia is used with pregnant women who have hypertension. If not treated, preeclampsia can be harmful to mother and baby. This is why it is so important to have regular check-ups where your blood pressure is taken and why it is so important to take medication if you need to do so.

To see if you have hypertension, your doctor will take several blood pressure readings on you (preferably lying down, it seems to relax you better) that will need to be several weeks apart. However if you’re doctor suspects that your organs have already begun to deteriorate due to hypertension in the body, the treatment will need to be taken care of soon.

With blood pressure, you cannot feel it or feel its symptoms coming on. With hypertension, you may experience a headache or blurry vision, but generally it comes on quietly. But once you have hypertension, you will have it for the rest of your life.

Eyes- If hypertension is left untreated, it can affect the eyes in that there will be flame-shaped hemorrhages in the retina, or there will be small, soft exudates. This is called hypertensive retinopathy. Malignant hypertension differs from hypertensive retinopathy in that there is papilledema, or swelling around the optic nerve.

Brain- While headaches are uncommon in hypertension; it is very common in malignant hypertension if the blood pressure is extremely high. Brain involvement with malignant hypertension can sometimes cause convulsions.

Lungs- Malignant hypertension can cause congestion in the lungs and results from fluid being forced into the lungs from heart failure as a result from the blood pressure being too high.

Kidneys- Malignant hypertension can also cause kidney or renal failure by obstruction of the arteries, causing less blood to flow to the kidneys.

Symptoms from malignant hypertension include blurry vision, vomiting, chest pains or a crushing sensation on the chest, decreased urine output, and/or tingling or numbness in the face, neck, arms, hands, or feet.

Like hypertension overall, the exact cause of malignant hypertension is uncertain. While little is still known about this condition, there are a few things that are known. Younger people are more likely to get malignant hypertension than older people which is the opposite of general hypertension. Those of African descent are more likely to get malignant hypertension, as well as those who already have a history of kidney failure and pregnant women that have gestational hypertension.

There are two hypertensive conditions that are still of some concern such as hypertensive urgency and hypertensive emergency. With hypertensive urgency, the blood pressure will be high with no serious symptoms. This means that people could be at risk for developing malignant hypertension if left untreated. In hypertensive emergency there can be organ damage and bringing the blood pressure down is crucial. The systolic number in hypertensive emergency will usually be greater than 220.

People with malignant hypertension need to treated quickly and should always be admitted into the hospital for close observation. In some cases, people may be admitted into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). With hospital stays, intravenous drugs are the main focus of therapy because they work in the body quicker than medicines taken orally. Two drugs that are commonly used to bring high blood pressure down are nitroglycerin and nitroprusside. Several blood tests will be done several times a day to evaluate the organs. If treated promptly, malignant hypertension has a good outlook. After the hospital stay, it is common and recommended that people be prescribed medicines such as beta blockers or ACE inhibitors to avoid malignant hypertension in the future.

The true definition of hypertension, or high blood pressure, has been studied over the years by doctors and scientists through various experimentations. What they have come up with is that the hypertension results vary from country to country, region to region.

According to the dictionary, hypertension is defined as: A medical condition, in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated, or a number of 140/90 or higher.

There are other conditions that need to be taken into consideration when defining hypertension but some of these considerations need to be discarded. For example, when a healthy person goes to the doctor and the blood pressure reading is unusually high. This could be due to the sheer fact that someone is taking the blood pressure reading or a fear of “white-coat syndrome” (yes it is a real syndrome), and not necessarily because there is a problem with hypertension. The doctor or nurse should retake the blood pressure reading after some time has passed to see if the blood pressure is really that high. At that time, the blood pressure should return to normal.

If the diastolic reading (the bottom number) on the blood pressure reading stays the same and doesn’t significantly increase, chances are the blood pressure is in normal limits. The diastolic number is the more important of the two for blood pressure. This is because it indicates the pressure within the arteries when the heart rests in between beats. If the arterial walls are narrowed, blood is flowing less than it should be and will have a higher reading.

If someone has a blood pressure reading of 170/110, this means that the heart is working double trying to keep up with the flow of the blood. With a blood pressure this high, a person is likely to notice some symptoms such as severe headaches, tiredness, and/or dizzy spells. If a blood pressure reading is 230/130, this is to be considered a life-threatening medical problem as this can cause heart disease or lead to a stroke.

Hypertension alone can lead doctors to other illnesses that may be seen in the near future. Once someone is diagnosed with hypertension, they will have hypertension for the rest of their life. They need to treat this medical condition and keep it under good control to avoid the risks that may come along, if left untreated.