Hypertension

Hypertension means High blood pressure. Millions of individuals are stricken with high blood pressure in our society and it is estimated that up to 50 percent of those individuals who have high blood pressure don’t know they have the condition until a random screen occurs usually at a local health fair or clinic. A patient typically presents for other reasons such as a common cold or sore throat, and it is than that patients are usually told they have high blood pressure while never been essentially diagnosed with the medical condition. New clinical data has emerged recently from meta analysis compiled data over a decade on defining our new blood pressure treatment guidelines and the standard approach to treatment of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is grouped into two categories, It is categorized as essential hypertension or non-essential hypertension (secondary causes). Essential hypertension afflicts approximately 90% of all hypertensives where as secondary hypertension only afflicts a smaller sub group of people consisting of the more rare and unusual causes of high blood pressure making up approximately 10% of all hypertensives.

Looking at non medicinal alternatives, there are many ways to help curb blood pressure especially if you have borderline high blood pressure or stage 1 blood pressure. You can do many things with lifestyle changes, exercise and diet modification which all can help curb blood pressure without use of medications. If your blood pressure is in the pre-hypertension range, in other words if the blood pressure is in a range slightly above normal but not quite high enough to be labelled as hypertension, than you would certainly benefit from lifestyle changes as mentioned above. If the blood pressure is stage one systolic blood pressure or  the number on top is between 140-159 and the diastolic blood pressure or the number on the bottom is between 90-99 where normal is 120/80, lifestyle modifications most importantly low sodium (no added salt), weight loss and exercise would be of benefit to either stage pre high blood pressure or stage 1 hypertension. Unfortunately, the more the blood pressure rises the greater the likelihood that you will require blood pressure lowering medications to control the blood pressure especially once it reaches stage 2 which is 160/100.

Reducing the blood pressure in the body is basically like turning down the pressure in a pipe. This reduction in pressure will prolong life and reduce mortality, it will reduce stroke and heart attack potential by three and five fold respectively. Blood pressure therapy is paramount in those individuals who are refractory to lifestyle modifications if blood pressure does not improve from the baseline in those who aggressively exercised and lost weight gradually over several months.