High Blood Pressure ? Causes Symptoms and Treatment

High blood pressure (hypertension) orhypertension means high pressure(tension) in the arteries. Arteries are thevessels that carry blood from the heartpumping all tissues and organs in the body. High blood pressure does not meanexcessive emotional tension, althoughemotional tension and stress cantemporarily increase blood pressure.Normal blood pressure is less than 120 on high level and 80 minimum; blood pressurebetween 120 and 80 and 139 / 89 is called"prehypertension"and a blood pressure of140 and 90 or higher is considered high.

The top number, systolic pressure,represents the pressure in the arteries asthe heart contracts and pumps blood forward into the arteries. The bottom number, diastolic pressure, represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart relaxes after contraction. Thediastolic pressure reflects the lowest pressure at which the arteries are exposed.

Causes Of High Blood Pressure :

There are two forms of hypertension: essential (or commonly primary) hypertension and secondaryhypertension. Essential hypertension is a condition which is much more common and accounts for95% of hypertension. The cause of essential hypertension is multi factorial, that is, there areseveral factors whose combined effects are of hypertension. In secondary hypertension,accounting for almost 5% of hypertension, hypertension is secondary to (OR caused by) a specific abnormality in one of the organs or body systems. (secondary hypertension is discussed in aseparate section).Essential hypertension affects approximately 70+ millions Americans, but its basic causes orunderlying defects are not always known. Nevertheless, some associations have been detected inpeople with essential hypertension

Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure :

Hypertension usually occurs without symptoms (silent) and if hypertension has been called "thesilent killer. " It is so named because the disease can progress and eventually develop one or moreof the many life-threatening complications of hypertension such as heart attacks or strokes.Uncomplicated hypertension may be present and remain undetected for many years, even decades. What happens when there are no symptoms are found, and those affected then fails toundergo periodic screening for high blood pressure.
Some of the important symptoms of high blood pressure are headache, feeling shorter breath, feeling blur in vision ( blurred vision ) etc.