What Is Hypertension?

Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. The term “blood pressure” is used to describe the pressure within the arterial walls that moves blood from the heart and around the body. When the arterial walls narrow, it makes it harder for the blood to flow through them. The heart has to pump harder to get the blood flowing through and increases the blood pressure, hence the name high blood pressure.

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.