(ORDO NEWS) — Hypertension or arterial hypertension is a common problem all over the world. Cardiovascular disease is very dangerous and is characterized by either stable high blood pressure, or its sharp jumps.
If you do not start treating the pathology in time, then it can lead to serious consequences – stroke, heart attack, disability, and even death. Absolutely everyone can face a problem, so you need to know as much as possible about the “enemy”.
Symptoms of hypertension
The insidiousness of hypertension is that very often it does not manifest itself in any way and is asymptomatic, making itself felt already at the stage of target organ damage. If symptoms occur, they are not specific: headaches, dizziness, heart pain, heart failure, palpitations, shortness of breath.
Treatment of hypertension
Treatment begins with lifestyle modification. What kind of “beast is this”? And these are: weight loss, increased consumption of vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, salt restriction to 5 grams per day, restriction of alcohol intake, regular moderate physical activity (minimum 150 min / week).
For a small percentage of people, this is where it all ends. But most people additionally need to take antihypertensive drugs in order to control the pressure and achieve stable retention at the target level, to prevent complications.
Why does hypertension occur?
The causes of hypertension, or, more correctly, essential (primary) arterial hypertension (AH), are complex: overweight, sedentary lifestyle, environmental factors, heredity (genetic factors), age, smoking. These factors trigger cascades of complex mechanisms in our body, which at some stage become irreversible.
Only about 5-10% have a specific disease that causes an increase in blood pressure, i.e. secondary hypertension. These are endocrine pathologies such as pheochromocytoma, hyperthyroidism, Cohn’s syndrome, Cushing’s syndrome; kidney disease – stenosis or anomalies of the arteries of the kidneys, polycystic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, medication and other fairly rare diseases.
Why is hypertension dangerous?
Hypertension, first of all, is dangerous by damage to target organs: the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes. All of these organs are damaged chronically and, in the overwhelming majority of cases, they are not accompanied by any symptoms, leading to irreversible changes in their structure and violations of their function.
Also, untreated hypertension is dangerous with acute conditions: heart attack, stroke, acute renal failure, acute heart failure, aortic rupture (the main vessel of the heart), life-threatening arrhythmias, retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, death.
What can not be done with high blood pressure?
You cannot “run” from a doctor and hide from people with a tonometer). You need to understand that even without doing anything, complications can develop.
Normally, under stress, physical exertion, blood pressure rises by 20-30-40 mm Hg. (depending on the type of load), but also quickly after its termination returns to normal. Now imagine if a person initially has 160/100 mm Hg.
Can hypertension be cured?
In theory, it is possible if a person regularly controlled blood pressure, noticed its increase at the very beginning of the disease, went to the doctor and not only listened to lifestyle modification, but also brought its principles to life on an ongoing basis.
But in practice, we are mainly faced with a situation where the disease has been asymptomatic for many years, a person came to the appointment when a hypertensive crisis occurred, believing that “just now it all started.” And according to the results of additional examinations, we see damage to target organs or pressure figures that are very high at the moment, which potentially threatens the development of acute complications.
And at this stage, a constant intake of drugs is needed to stop all these negative processes and even improve the structural state of the target organs. SECONDARY AH is potentially curable, such as pheochromocytoma, the treatment of which is the removal of the tumor and, as a result, the normalization of pressure. The prognosis for complete recovery depends on the type of disease that led to secondary hypertension.
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