Category Archives: High blood pressure

Low Blood Pressure

Posted on January 13, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

Technical name of low blood pressure is hypo tension. If your reading is around 90/60 mmHg or below then you are having  low blood pressure. However, low blood pressure patients have a good protection from some factors that raises our blood pressure to the extreme high level.

low blood pressure
 

But this low blood pressure can bring you some undesirable problems.

Low blood pressure symptoms

Normally Many people with low blood pressure do not experience any symptoms. Although you are affected by low blood pressure and it is not very severe and doesn’t need to worry. No treatment is required at all.

For some people, if the blood pressure is low then the flow of blood to our brain and other organs will get affected. The blood supply will become insufficient. Such patients need an immediate medical attention.

Here we list some common symptoms of hypotension:

These low blood pressure patients will suffer from Blurred vision.

Often they will feel Dizziness and fainting.

They are easily affected by Cold.

They will be seen with clammy and pale skin.

They always experience Depression and Fatigue

Nausea, Thirst.

Orthostatic hypotension 

high blood pressure

Orthostatic hypotension is also known as postural hypotension .These patient’s blood pressure will be changed depending upon their posture .Patients with low blood pressure used to experience this orthostatic hypotension when they stand up from lying position and the reverse. Again the low blood pressure will come back to normal very soon. This orthostatic hypotension is very common when we get older.

Postprandial hypotension 

There are some chances of our blood pressure rising right after the meals. It may cause headache and faintness.  This kind of hypo tension is known as postprandial hypotension. It is a common disease seen in elder people.

Every time right after our meals intestines needs a sufficient increase in our blood supply to assist in digestion. As a response our heart starts to beat faster and the blood vessels in all other parts of body.

After we eat our intestines requires a significant increase in blood supply for digestion. The heart responds by beating faster while blood vessels in other parts of the body shrinks it size to maintain the pressure in a consistent manner. When we grow older, our heart beat will not increase. So blood pressure used to get decreased.

The following steps will help you in postprandial hypotension.

Lie down once after having meals.

  • Try to cut off or decrease carbohydrate from meals.
  • Avoid heavy and frequent meals.

 Low blood pressure Causes

Medications like Beta blockers, Alpha blockers, Diuretics and drugs are given for Parkinson’s disease can drop your blood pressure level.

Some other causes are severe infections, Anesthesia, internal bleeding, blood poisoning, Septicemia.

Dehydration

Dehydration is one of the causes that can get you the low blood pressure. If our body tends to lose more water when comparing to the intake, you will become dehydrated. Dehydration makes our body to lose weight by 1%. If our water or blood volumes are dropping continuously then our heart can’t do its function effectively.

This low blood pressure can be treated through medications.

 

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High Blood Pressure Diet

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

If we take necessary steps to prevent hypertension we are actually reducing the risk of getting some diseases like stroke, heart attack, blindness, kidney failure and so on. It’s not like other diseases for those, even if you undergone the treatment for some short period it’s enough but for high blood pressure you should take the medications for your entire life. It is unusual, but certainly not a rare one, significant changes in your lifestyle can bring the readings of lower blood pressure to normal.

Untreated and Uncontrolled high blood pressure is an important reason for stroke, heart attack and kidney failure. This is the reason for why high blood pressure is named as “the silent killer.”

You can prevent the High blood pressure by healthy food habit and through high blood pressure diet.

Given below are some tips to prevent the high blood pressure:

  • Always try to have nutritious food which should also be low-fat diet.

high-blood-pressure-diet

  • Spent some time to do exercise and make it a regular habit.
  • Try to decrease the amount of salt (sodium) intake; do not forget to read food labels before you eat. It is a wise way to know the content and of course the measure of salt in that food.
  • Try to avoid fast foods and adding extra salt to your food. Make sure your food doesn’t contain excess of salt.
  • Try to maintain the correct weight according to your BMI (body mass index). If you are over weighted take necessary steps to lose it.
  • Avoid alcohol.
  • Quit smoking.
  • Regular check up of your health and blood pressure is necessary.
  • Don’t stop your blood pressure medications even if you feel fine. Remember you should continue it for your life time.
  • Everyone in this world is stressed. We can’t avoid the stress but try to learn the techniques to relax the stress.

Do’s and don’ts to be followed in high blood pressure diet

DO’S

  • Try to increase the amount of Fruits intake.
  • Try to add more vegetables in your daily meals.
  • Always have low fat or fat free dairy products.
  • Try to reduce the amount of sodium salt intake.
  • Reduce sweets, red meat and sugar-containing drinkables.
  • Make sure your food have rich fiber, nutrients and protein.

DON’T DO’S

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Forget the Sodium Salts

If you are having high blood pressure then you should reduce the amount of table salt in your food. It is suggested that the total amount of sodium intake should be limited to 2,500 (1 teaspoon of salt) milligrams which includes all consumed sodium; it is not a matter that whether it was added for cooking or it was already found in food products.

Here we present a small list which contain sodium

  • Mono sodium glutamate (MSG), seasoned salts, Baking soda, Soy sauce and some antacids.

The following list presents you the items which are safe to eat

Since fresh fruits and vegetables have low level sodium these can be included in your high blood pressure diet.

Avoid Caffeine

Caffeine is found in tea, coffee and sodas. It raises blood pressure temporarily. But if it is taken often or frequently it will raise the high blood pressure permanently. So it is suggested to avoid caffeine contained foods.


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How To Lower Blood pressure

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

 Self care and treatment

how to lower blood pressure
Self care

If you ask “How to lower blood pressure?”. Then the answer would be by medication and diet. Controlling the Blood pressure cannot be done in one day. It is in fact a lifelong challenge you need to face. Hypertension can go on through the years, and the same sort of treatment can also become use less. The treatment needed for high blood pressure varies over the time .Shortly it needs to be adjusted in every stage. Controlling the Blood pressure essentially involves a step by step approach which starts with weight loss, diet and medications .To some extreme it requires a change in the regular life style. Just like so many other diseases, sometimes the patient and health care practitioner works as a team to figure out the right sort of treatment that suits for the individual.

Self-Care at Home

If you really want to control the high blood pressure, then you need to know the two major factors. The first and foremost is the modification of life style and the second one lies in the medication. These are described elaborately in the following subsections.

Required Lifestyle Modifications

Weight Control

  • If you want to be healthy first, find out the optimal weight range of your body according to your height and body type. Health care practitioners will assist you in calculating your optimal weight.
  • The fact is even a very small number in your weight loss can able to make a significant difference in the process of preventing or lowering the high blood pressure.
  • If you want to lose weight you need to burn more calories.
  •  Normally Crash or fad diets definitely will not assist you .In fact it will be become dangerous.
  • Some medications practiced for weight can also bring you significant risks. It can also increase your blood pressure .So it’s better to consult your pharmacist or health care practitioner to help in deciding whether a weight loss medication is suitable for your situation.

Increase Physical Activity


how to lower blood pressure
 

    • In general any work that involves in Physical activity has the power in reducing the bad cholesterol and the total cholesterol in your body.  Physical activity also elevates the good cholesterol (high density lipoprotein).
    • Medical world suggests one should have at least half an hour of physical activity compulsorily per week.
    • The term Physical activity compresses so many day to day activities like cleaning your house, walking and raking the lawn. If you have chances try to use steps instead of elevators or escalators. Do a participation in sports. Dance is also a physical activity which prevents the high blood pressure.

    Medical Treatment

    • Fifty percentages of the people having the high blood pressure can decrease their blood pressure by 5 mm Hg by just limiting their sodium intake through eliminating cooking salt, table salt. Maintaining the correct weight and by doing the regular physical activity will also play a major role in reducing the blood pressure as a follow up. In case all these lifestyle changes and trials don’t work, you should follow the medications. For the detailed information on how to lower blood pressure using medication kindly see our high blood pressure symptoms and medications page.

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High Blood Pressure Symptoms And Medications

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

High Blood Pressure symptoms include headache, dizziness and chest pain. Medications of high blood pressure for each case will not be the same. Merely it is like a trial and error method to decide the right medication or combination of medications which helps to control the hyper tension or high blood pressure in every single case. For some patients high blood pressure symptoms vary. It is very important to follow the medications as suggested and discontinue them only on the advice of your doctor. It is advisable to take up the test once high blood pressure symptoms are starting to appear.

high blood pressure symptoms
Water Pills (diuretics)

  • Mild high blood pressure can be cured through Diuretics .But it is rarely used to do so. Diuretics are mostly used in the combination with other medications.
  • They give a rapid increase in the sodium excretion and also in the urine output. Eventually it decreases the volume of blood .It also decreases the sensitiveness to the consequence of other hormones in our body.
  • One prominent example for a diuretic is hydrochlorothiazide (HydroDIURIL)

The familiar diuretics used in the treatment of hypertension include the following:

The loop diuretics furosemide (Lasix) and torsemide (Demadex), hydrochlorothiazide.

(HydroDIURIL and metolazone (Zaroxolyn).

Beta-Blockers


high blood pressure symptoms
Beta-blockers actually involve in reducing the rate of heart beat and it also decreases the force of heart contraction. It is done by blocking the adrenaline receptors. This Beta-blocker is the one which is effective and mostly suggested at the same time it can cause the risk of increased tired and decreased exercise tolerance.

These Beta-Blockers are usually prescribed for all who have associated heart diseases like heart attack and angina. Some examples for beta blockers are metoprolol (Lopressor), carvedilol (Coreg) and atenolol (Tenormin).

Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs)

  • Calcium channel blocking agents are functioning by relaxing the muscle in our walls that is artery walls hence they reduces the heart muscle‘s force of contraction.
  • Some Examples for CCBs are given below
  • Nifedipine (Procardia), diltiazem(Cardizem), nicardipine (Cardene),
  • felodipine (Plendil)  verapamil (Isoptin, Calan) and amlodipine(Norvasc)

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors)

  • ACE inhibitor quits the creation of the chemical component known as angiotensin II. As a result this causes blood vessels to contract. So the Narrower blood vessels are affected by the unusual increased blood pressure. The root factor behind the lower blood pressure is Relaxed artery walls

Some Examples for beta blockers are metoprolol (Lopressor), carvedilol (Coreg) and atenolol (Tenormin)

Captopril (Capoten),

Lisinopril (Zestril, Prinivil),

Fosinopril (Monopril)

Quinapril (Accupril),

Enalapril (Vasotec)

Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs)

  • ARBs functions in blocking the angiotensin II receptors which also prevents the blood vessels from being narrowed. This process is also known as vasoconstriction

Some examples for ARBs are given below.

Losartan (Cozaar),

Candesartan (Atacand),

Irbesartan (Avapro) and

Valsartan (Diovan).

Central Sympathetic System Blockers

  • These agents usually block the messages which are sent from the autonomic nervous system of the brain which restricts the blood vessels. This autonomic nervous system is one of the main parts in the unconscious nervous system. Its functions includes the control of breathing rate,  heart rate and so many other elementary functions.
  • This Central Sympathetic System Blockers relaxes the blood vessels so it reduces the blood pressure.
  • One prominent example includes clonidine (Catapres).

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High Blood Pressure Causes

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

Generally Hypertension or HT is classified into two

  1. Essential hypertension
  2. Secondary hypertension

Essential hypertension:

Out of these two the most common one is Essential hypertension or idiopathic hypertension which is found approximately in 90 percent of all cases. The causes behind the essential hyper tension are not very clear. However, we have identified some factors through our medical studies and research.  Obesity, Significant amount of these factors are due to unhealthy dietary habits, insufficient rest , tension, smoking, stress, excessive consumption of liquors, excessive consumption of tea and coffee metabolic disorders, etc…

Secondary hypertension

It is the outcome of a particular disease. A hypertension that occurs within the renal arteries essentially causes the renal hypertension. As a result the entire circulatory system will get affected.

One Another factor behind the secondary hypertension is Cushing’s syndrome . It is basically a ldosteronism which is  a metabolic disorder mainly caused by unusual excess production of corticosteroid hormones that results in High blood pressure and obesity.

Here we list all the known high blood pressure causes

1. Overweight – it is one of the common causes of high blood pressure.This Problem is very common one in all countries. Since we are living in the technically developed world the amount of our physical work has been reduced significantly. Kids are comfortable with their PC’S and play stations. Even they don’t go to their next door to play. In offices every thin has become automated so office workers job is done in just a click away. Above all we hate to walk. These all results in the problem called over weight. Surveys states minimum 7 out of 10 are over weighted people.

2. Snacks – We all like pizza, burger, noodles, French fries and pasta. Don’t we? These are some items that we consume in our day to day life. All these items increase the amount of salt in our body. It’s an open invitation for High Blood pressure.

high blood pressure causes
3. Stress – Everyone in this world are getting stress in some way or other. The magic is just try to keep yourself cool always. Even your kid in school feels stress. Software people are the main one who is always in stress.

4. Old age – There are so many reasons for people why they hate the old age. Do you ever think the prominent reason? It’s not because their skin will get shrink and they look ugly, it’s because when we grew old we will easily be affected by the diseases. We will lose out stamina. Foremost thing is we will get hyper tension too.

5. Family history – if your parents have high blood pressure, then definitely it will be inherited from them to their sons and daughters. To the high extreme it has the power to propagate through generations.

6. Chronic diseases – There are so many diseases that bring the high blood pressure with it. Chronic kidney disease is the one that brings High blood pressure.

7. Smoking – Nearly 50 percentages of high blood pressure patients are chain smokers. So stop  your smoking habit if you want to lead a healthy life.

8. Alcoholism – If you are the one who enjoys drinking you should be ready to face the consequences too .People who enjoys the alcohol are the one who is having the high blood pressure disease at their door steps.

9. Gender – surveys shows when compared to women, men are more affected by the high blood pressure.

10. Birth control pills – Avoid ‘birth control pills’ they are one of the factor that causes the Hyper tension.

high blood pressure causes
12.Ethnicity – It is proved that people from Africa and Caribbean are easily  affected by the  hypertension when compare to people in other countries.

Always remember the above stated high blood pressure causes and try to be cautious.


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High Blood Pressure

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

High blood pressure is otherwise known as hypertension. Blood pressure is stated as the total amount of force passed through the walls of arteries as the blood passes by. Suppose if a person is stated as having the high blood pressure which means that his arteries walls are receiving thigh volume of pressure often repeatedly – the pressure should be persistently raised.

high blood pressure
A survey shows In the USA more or less 72 million people have been affected by the hypertension –it is about 1 in every 3 adults. The National Health Service of UK, approximates 40% of the British adults are affected by hyper tension. NIH (National Institutes of Health) estimates above the age of 65, two-thirds USA residents have high blood pressure.

Systolic pressure – It is a type of blood pressure when the heart contracts, especially when at the time of hyper tension. This high blood pressure is produced when the left ventricle of our heart contracts.

  • Diastolic pressure –it is a type of blood pressure and produced at between heartbeats, during the heart is resting and dilating (opening up, expanding).

While measuring the person’s blood pressure we need to measure both the systolic and diastolic pressures. The measured volumes usually seems with a larger figures first (systolic pressure), which is followed by a smaller figure (diastolic pressure). These volumes are always written with the amount of pressure followed by the “mmHg”. mmHg of expansion is millimeters of mercury.

f you are told that your blood pressure is 120 over 80 (120/80 mmHg), it means a systolic pressure of 120mmHg and a diastolic pressure of 80mmHg.

There are five categories of blood pressure:

Hypotension otherwise known as low blood pressure.if the measure is mmHg 90 or less Systolic or mmHg 60 Diastolic then it is categorized as Hypotension.

high blood pressure

  • Normal
    if the measure is mmHg 90-119 Systolic mmHg 90-119, and Diastolic mmHg 60-79 then it is called as Normal
  • Prehypertension
    if the measure is between Systolic mmHg 120-139, and
    Diastolic mmHg 80-89 then it is called as Prehypertension

Stage 1 Hypertension
If the measured range is between Systolic mmHg 140-159, and Diastolic mmHg 90-99 then the person is in  Stage 1Hypertension.

  • Stage 2 Hypertension
    If the measured range is between Systolic mmHg over 160, and Diastolic mmHg over 100 then the person is in  Stage 2 Hypertension

Symptoms of hypertension

Hyper tension usually affects the following parts of our body.

Many people having high blood pressure will not even feel  any symptoms until the blood pressure level rises to180/110 mmHg. When symptoms start to appear the following will be experienced:

  • They will have headache which last for so many days
  • Nausea – It is a feel of unease and which cause uncomfortableness in the stomach that causes the vomit.
  • Vomiting –it is less common when compare to nausea.
  • Dizziness – Unsteadiness, Lightheadedness and vertigo.
  • Blurred or diplopia (double vision).
  • Epistaxis – nosebleeds.
  • Palpitations – disagreeable feel of irregular and forceful beating of the heart.
  • Dyspnea – it causes breathlessness and shortness of breath

If anybody experiences these symptoms it is safe to consult the doctor immediately.

If Children have hypertension they will have the below stated symptoms:

  • Fatigue – Temporary loss of strength and energy resulting from hard physical or mental work
  • Headache, Nosebleeds, Blurred vision.
  • Bell’s palsy – it is the inability of controlling the facial muscles particularly on a single side of the face.

Newborns and very young babies will have the below stated with hypertension will have the below stated symptoms..

  • Lethargy,Seizure,Respiratory distress,Irritability

People who are having the hypertension should check their blood pressure frequently.
Even if our blood pressure is normal, we should check the level for every five years once.

 

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