Hypertension or high blood pressure is a condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is chronically elevated. With every heart beat, the heart pumps blood through the arteries to the rest of the body. Blood pressure is the force of blood that is pushing up against the walls of the blood vessels. If the pressure is too high, the heart has to work harder to pump, and this could lead to organ damage and several illnesses such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure, aneurysm, or renal failure.
According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, hypertension means "High blood pressure; transitory or sustained elevation of systemic arterial blood pressure to a level likely to induce cardiovascular damage or other adverse consequences."
The normal level for blood pressure is below 120/80, where 120 represents the systolic measurement (peak pressure in the arteries) and 80 represents the diastolic measurement (minimum pressure in the arteries). Blood pressure between 120/80 and 139/89 is called prehypertension (to denote increased risk of hypertension), and a blood pressure of 140/90 or above is considered hypertension.
Hypertension may be classified as essential or secondary. Essential hypertension is the term for high blood pressure with unknown cause. It accounts for about 95% of cases. Secondary hypertension is the term for high blood pressure with a known direct cause, such as kidney disease, tumors, or birth control pills.
Some 73 million adults in the United States are affected by hypertension. The condition also affects about two million teens and children.
What causes hypertension?
Though the exact causes of hypertension are usually unknown, there are several factors that have been highly associated with the condition. These includes:
- Smoking
- Obesity or being overweight
- Diabetes
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Lack of physical activity
- High levels of salt intake (sodium sensitivity)
- Insufficient calcium, potassium, and magnesium consumption
- Vitamin D deficiency
- High levels of alcohol consumption
- Stress
- Aging
- Medicines such as birth control pills
- Genetics and a family history of hypertension
- Chronic kidney disease
- Adrenal and thyroid problems or tumors
Statistics in the USA indicate that African Americans have a higher incidence of hypertension than other ethnicities.
What are the symptoms of hypertension?
There is no guarantee that a person with hypertension will present any symptoms of the condition. About 33% of people actually do not know that they have high blood pressure, and this ignorance can last for years. For this reason, it is advisable to undergo periodic blood pressure screenings even when no symptoms are
These are the image representation of our arteries. The 1st image represents our arteries when we were young, the 2nd image is when we were in adolescent years and the 3rd image is when we get older.
Notice the plaque build up on our arterial wall when we get older. Those plaques blocks the blood from flowing smoothly through our arteries thus causes hypertension. Most often than not, at this stage doctors advice patients to take maintenance drugs to avoid possible stroke. But those drugs didn't clean plaques away, instead they are just widening the aterial opening for the blood to pass through. But after the effect of those drugs, arteries goes back to its normal condition. Full of plaques and with narrow opening.
FACT!!!!
Taking Green Barley regularly can reduce the plaque build-up on our arterial wall thus allowing our blood to flow smoothly and our heart to function normally.
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