Control Your Hypertension through Proper Awareness

Hypertension is one of the common diseases in present society, thereby, in order to control or prevent from this disease, you must have a proper awareness so that you will be able to obtain better health. Here I want to discuss important elements for your guidance regarding hypertension. Basically, hypertension (high blood pressure) is a chronic medical disorder in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. It may be developed by multiple factors through structural and functional microvascular and macrovascular alterations (Yannoutsos, Levy, Safar, Slama & Blacher, 2014). It is a state of great psychological stress that can lead to severe complications and increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. Hypertension may take place for years without the onset of symptoms. However, damage to blood vessels can occur and detected even without symptoms. 

Two Important Elements to Control or Prevent Hypertension yourself

1.      Awareness

2.      Lifestyle Changes

Guidance about Essential and Secondary Hypertension

 Hypertension is commonly classified into two main types such as primary or essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. As far as essential hypertension is concerned, it is the form of hypertension with no identifiable cause, most commonly it affects 95% of hypertensive patients. Conversely, secondary hypertension is another type of hypertension caused by an identifiable underlying primary cause. It is less prevalent than primary hypertension affects only 5% of hypertensive patients. Primary hypertension remains somewhat mysterious whereas secondary does not as the direct cause of high blood pressure can be identified in this type (Gupta-Malhotra et al., 2014). Primary hypertension is known to be a consequence of environmental and genetic factors. Environmental factors may include smoking, high intake of salt and alcohol etc. Also, the small effects of numerous common and rare genetic variants have been identified. On the other hand, secondary prevention can be caused due to many illnesses such as chronic renal diseases, narrowing of the kidney arteries, metabolic disorders, use of birth control pills, obstructive sleep apnea, adrenal gland tumors, thyroid problems and some illegal drugs such as cocaines. Insulin resistance, common in obesity and a component of syndrome X (metabolic syndrome ) has also been found to be associated with hypertension (Gupta-Malhotra et al., 2014).

Risk Factors of Hypertension

There are numerous risk factors associated with the medical condition of hypertension. Age is the most identifiable risk factor and the risk of high blood pressure increases with the progress in age. Secondly, family history can be another risk factor as it tends to run in families. Obesity is yet one of the most common risk factors. The more you gain weight, the more blood you need resulting in increased pressure. Other common environmental risk factors may include less physical activity, smoking, high intake of salt and alcohol, less intake of potassium, stress and other chronic illnesses such as diabetes. Moreover, insulin resistance which is common in obesity and a component of metabolic syndrome found to increase blood pressure. Some of the risk factors of adult essential hypertension include low birth weight, maternal smoking and lack of breastfeeding (Liu et al., 2017). Kidney disease affects fluid and electrolyte volume resulting in excess pressure in the arteries. Metabolic disorders produce hormonal fluctuations which lead to changes in blood pressure. Furthermore, smoking causes narrowing of the arteries, the hormones releases in stress such as epi and norepinephrine also narrow the arteries leading to hypertension.

Disease Progression

As I mentioned earlier that a variety of risk factors are linked with hypertension such as age, gender, obesity, and anxious behavior. In addition to this, environmental factors may also contribute to cellular changes which lead to tissue and organ damage if left untreated. A variety of cells of the immune system and cytokines have been shown to be involved in the mechanism of hypertension. The severity of hypertension has been found to be due to dysfunction of the thymus which modulates the development and maturation of lymphocytes. Studies have shown that aging is associated with the loss of thymus function and gradual atrophy. Thymus dysfunction leads to the imbalance of T lymphocytes and changes the secretion of T β4. T lymphocytes and macrophages cause infiltration in the kidneys. The aggregation of inflammatory factors and immune system response in the renal vascular injury may lead to hypertension. In conclusion, Angiotensin II may affect the function and expression of the thymus through the downregulated expression of the Antihydrogen Trap (ATRAP), this is then followed the changes in T cells balance which causes endothelial dysfunction and target organ damage including fibrosis, thereby leading to hypertension. The elevation of arterial pressure can be complicated by metabolic changes and damage in the blood vessels, brain, kidney, retina, heart, and other target organs (Dai et al., 2018).

Criteria to Prevent Hypertension

It is a recognized fact that health care providers and physicians play a key role in treating hypertension. However, you can also obtain prevention from hypertension by acquiring proper awareness regarding lifestyle, diet, exercises and other important elements. Healthcare providers also recommend a healthy lifestyle to prevent hypertension. Most importantly, you need to develop a healthy lifestyle behaviors such as, increased physical activity, less intake of salt in the routine diet, maintain weight and prevent obesity, add fruits and vegetables in diet, limit the use of meat, quit smoking and alcohol consumption as well as reduce stress, anxiety and try to remain peaceful. These are all the effective lifestyle change strategies to control and prevent hypertension and its complications (Fang, Ayala & Loustalot, 2015).

References

Dai, X., Hua, L., Chen, Y., Wang, J., Li, J., & Wu, F. et al. (2018). Mechanisms in hypertension and target organ damage: Is the role of the thymus key? (Review). International Journal of Molecular Medicine. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2018.3605

Fang, J., Ayala, C., & Loustalot, F. (2015). Primary Care Providers’ Recommendations for Hypertension Prevention, DocStyles Survey, 2012. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 6(3), 170-176. doi: 10.1177/2150131915568997

Gupta-Malhotra, M., Banker, A., Shete, S., Hashmi, S., Tyson, J., & Barratt, M. et al. (2014). Essential Hypertension vs. Secondary Hypertension among Children. American Journal of Hypertension, 28(1), 73-80. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpu083

Yannoutsos, A., Levy, B., Safar, M., Slama, G., & Blacher, J. (2014). Pathophysiology of hypertension. Journal of Hypertension, 32(2), 216-224. doi: 10.1097/hjh.0000000000000021