High Blood Pressure Information
The diagnosis of high blood pressure (hypertension) is defined as a blood pressure greater than 140/90 on two or more occasions.
Keeping a log of your blood pressures to periodically review with you physician can help to assure optimal control.
Lifestyle measures such as a low salt (low sodium) diet, weight reduction, smoking cessation and a regular exercise program can be extremely effective strategies to help control high blood pressure.
Medications are often prescribed to help patients achieve their desired blood pressure goals.
Symptoms
High Blood Pressure Symptoms
High blood pressure usually causes no symptoms.
•Even if high blood pressure does cause symptoms, the symptoms are usually mild and nonspecific (vague, or suggesting many different disorders).
•Thus, high blood pressure often is labeled "the silent killer."
•People who have high blood pressure typically don't know it until their blood pressure is measured.
Sometimes people with high blood pressure have the following symptoms:
•Headache
•Dizziness
•Blurred vision
•Nausea
People often do not seek medical care until they have symptoms arising from the organ damage caused by chronic (ongoing, long-term) high blood pressure. The following types of organ damage are commonly seen in chronic high blood pressure:
•Heart attack
•Heart failure
•Stroke or "mini stroke" (transient ischemic attack, TIA)
•Kidney failure
•Eye damage with loss of vision
•Peripheral arterial disease
•Outpouchings of the aorta, called aneurysms
About 1% of people with high blood pressure do not seek medical care until the high blood pressure is very severe, a condition known as malignant hypertension.
•In malignant hypertension, the diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) often exceeds 140 mm Hg.
•Malignant hypertension may be associated with headache, light-headedness, or nausea.
•This degree of high blood pressure requires emergency hospitalization and lowering of blood pressure to prevent brain hemorrhage or stroke.
It is of utmost importance to realize that high blood pressure can be unrecognized for years, causing no symptoms but causing progressive damage to the heart, other organs, and blood vessels.
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