BLOOD pressure is the force or the tension, which keeps the
blood flowing through the arteries. The heart generates it as it beats
and it is maintained by the elasticity of the arterial walls.
Every person has blood pressure; without it the blood cannot circulate within the body.
Each time the heart
contracts, the blood pressure goes up and each time it relaxes, the blood pressure decreases.
Blood pressure has two components:
i) Systolic Pressure—the highest blood pressure recorded in the arteries as the heart contracts; it ranges between 100 and 140mm Hg.
ii) Diastolic Pressure: This is the lowest blood pressure recorded in the arteries as the heart relaxes and this ranges between 70 and 90mmHg. (Blood pressure measurement is recorded or reported as systolic pressure/diastolic pressure in mmHg).
Under normal circumstances, blood pressure varies between 100/70 and 140/90. However, blood pressure in each human being varies from hour to hour and from day to day – depending on the individual’s age, gender, race, emotions and temperaments, life styles (such as smoking and alcohol consumption), body weight, etc.
What is Hypertension?
“Hyper’ means high, and “Tension” is a kind of pressure or force. Therefore, hypertension means that the pressure or the tension or force in the blood vessels (arteries) is persistently high.
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a serious medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated and this can damage the heart - the powerful pump that keeps the flowing and the blood vessels (arteries, arterioles) – i.e. the pipes in which the blood flows to the various cells, tissues and organs.
Today, hypertension is one of the most common disorders of the cardiovascular system (the blood, the heart, the blood vessels (arteries, arterioles). It can occur in adults as well as in children, but it is more common among adults who are over age 40. The incidence of hypertension increases with age.
Medically speaking, two types of hypertension are known: Essential Hypertension and Secondary Hypertension.
Essential Hypertension:
90-95% of high blood pressure cases have no identifiable cause. When the cause is unknown, the hypertension is called primary or essential hypertension.
Essential hypertension tends to develop gradually over many years, especially in those people with the family history of hypertension, or those who are obese, diabetic or have high level of blood cholesterol or high sodium level in serum.
Secondary Hypertension:
Hypertension is secondary when a cause can be identified, e.g.: a disorder of the adrenal glands, kidneys, or arteries, arteriosclerosis, diabetes.
Diabetics are liable to suffer from high blood pressure due to arteriosclerosis, which, ultimately, may damage their retina as a consequence. Secondary hypertension accounts for only a small minority of patients with hypertension, but must be ruled out in all cases, as discovery and treatment of the cause will cure the hypertension.
Causes Of High Blood Pressure
We all live in today’s modern world that is full of those factors that can cause fear, anxiety, worry, emotional upsets, and deep inner conflicts. In addition, there is the ‘mad’ craving to accumulate earthly riches or to attain some earthly prominence, which usually leads to excessive passion for intellectual works, gross materialism, aggressiveness, chronic stress and high inner tension and pressure.
Studies have shown that a person whose body is always under high tension experiences a tightening or narrowing of the blood vessels leading to the head and all over the body. Poor blood circulation has always been traceable to high inner tension.
Although, there are few patients who are calm, well relaxed and less tensed up and yet have hypertension, many hypertensive patients are characterized by a generalized state of inner tensions, worries, anxiety, mental and emotional stress.
The earliest studies done 100 years ago revealed that hypertension was more common in men, whose works are stressful, or those who work under extreme pressure and who may not have time to engage in healthy exercises. Directors of big enterprises and people who are highly aggressive in the pursuit of earthly prominence and excellence and therefore, may have little or no time for spirituality or have no spiritual goals to balance up with the earthly and material pursuits, are among such people.
Spiritual exercise on a daily basis acts as a buffer against the inner tension, chronic stress, imbalance and disharmony that goes with all kinds of earthly and material striving.
Other factors that tighten or narrow the blood vessels all over the body are:
1) Nicotine in tobacco or cigarette may cause the narrowing of the blood vessels, especially when one is daily exposed to tobacco smoke either actively or through a secondary source.
2) Poor dietary habits, excessive alcohol intake, stimulants such as coffee or tea, or foods high in sodium e.g., white table salt, fatty foods as well as dairy products, may lead to nutritional excesses and deficiencies that can alter the structural integrity of the blood-carrying vessels.
3) Advancing age, obesity, lack of healthy physical exercises and sedentary lifestyles may cause the blood-carrying vessels to lose their flexibility and elasticity.
4) Hypertension or high blood pressure results when the blood-carrying vessels (the arteries and arterioles) become narrowed or constricted, thereby making the flow of blood through them difficult. As a compensatory measure, the heart may then raise the blood pressure by increasing the force of the contractions in order to pump blood through a narrowed space. It is the persistent increase in this force of the contractions that presumably results in what has become known as hypertension or high blood pressure.
5) As the heart muscles works harder and strains itself in order to pump blood through narrowed blood vessels and with the resultant sustained elevation in the arterial blood pressure and the turbulent flow of blood, the heart becomes enlarged and hypertrophied, especially the left ventricles which pump blood to the various parts of the body. An enlarged heart may progress to heart diseases (like, heart enlargement, heart palpitations, angina pectoris, heart attack, heart failure and premature death) due to loss of efficiency.
6) Also, the turbulent blood flow in the blood carrying vessels as a result of hypertension can damage the walls of the arteries and arterioles – and this can give rise to arteriosclerosis (a thickening, hardening and narrowing of the walls of the arteries), stroke, damage to the brain, poor memory, dementia, visual problems and blindness, kidney failures, leg pains etc.
The damages to the heart and the blood vessels increase exponentially if hypertension is accompanied with high blood sugar and cholesterol.
Symptoms of High Blood Pressure or Hypertension
Some of the patients may feel quite normal and calm without showing any clear-cut signs or symptoms of hypertension until they suddenly develop stroke with transient or permanent disability, heart attack, heart failure, etc, without being aware that the blood pressure has gone too high. Because of this, hypertension is known as the “silent killer.”
Only a few patients at the early stages of hypertension will experience headaches in the back of the head and upper part of the neck especially on waking up in the morning. Throbbing and pulsation in the temples, dizziness, lightheadedness, heart palpitations, inability to have restful and healing sleep, flushed complexion, shortness of breath, vision disturbances like: blurred vision, red eyes (or blood shot eyes), flickering before eyes or darkness, ringing in the ears, loss of memory and feeling like you are wearing a heavy helmet are all signs of hypertension.
Often times, hypertension is discovered only during routine physical examination.
...Drop a comment...thanks!
Every person has blood pressure; without it the blood cannot circulate within the body.
Each time the heart
contracts, the blood pressure goes up and each time it relaxes, the blood pressure decreases.
Blood pressure has two components:
i) Systolic Pressure—the highest blood pressure recorded in the arteries as the heart contracts; it ranges between 100 and 140mm Hg.
ii) Diastolic Pressure: This is the lowest blood pressure recorded in the arteries as the heart relaxes and this ranges between 70 and 90mmHg. (Blood pressure measurement is recorded or reported as systolic pressure/diastolic pressure in mmHg).
Under normal circumstances, blood pressure varies between 100/70 and 140/90. However, blood pressure in each human being varies from hour to hour and from day to day – depending on the individual’s age, gender, race, emotions and temperaments, life styles (such as smoking and alcohol consumption), body weight, etc.
What is Hypertension?
“Hyper’ means high, and “Tension” is a kind of pressure or force. Therefore, hypertension means that the pressure or the tension or force in the blood vessels (arteries) is persistently high.
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a serious medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated and this can damage the heart - the powerful pump that keeps the flowing and the blood vessels (arteries, arterioles) – i.e. the pipes in which the blood flows to the various cells, tissues and organs.
Today, hypertension is one of the most common disorders of the cardiovascular system (the blood, the heart, the blood vessels (arteries, arterioles). It can occur in adults as well as in children, but it is more common among adults who are over age 40. The incidence of hypertension increases with age.
Medically speaking, two types of hypertension are known: Essential Hypertension and Secondary Hypertension.
Essential Hypertension:
90-95% of high blood pressure cases have no identifiable cause. When the cause is unknown, the hypertension is called primary or essential hypertension.
Essential hypertension tends to develop gradually over many years, especially in those people with the family history of hypertension, or those who are obese, diabetic or have high level of blood cholesterol or high sodium level in serum.
Secondary Hypertension:
Hypertension is secondary when a cause can be identified, e.g.: a disorder of the adrenal glands, kidneys, or arteries, arteriosclerosis, diabetes.
Diabetics are liable to suffer from high blood pressure due to arteriosclerosis, which, ultimately, may damage their retina as a consequence. Secondary hypertension accounts for only a small minority of patients with hypertension, but must be ruled out in all cases, as discovery and treatment of the cause will cure the hypertension.
Causes Of High Blood Pressure
We all live in today’s modern world that is full of those factors that can cause fear, anxiety, worry, emotional upsets, and deep inner conflicts. In addition, there is the ‘mad’ craving to accumulate earthly riches or to attain some earthly prominence, which usually leads to excessive passion for intellectual works, gross materialism, aggressiveness, chronic stress and high inner tension and pressure.
Studies have shown that a person whose body is always under high tension experiences a tightening or narrowing of the blood vessels leading to the head and all over the body. Poor blood circulation has always been traceable to high inner tension.
Although, there are few patients who are calm, well relaxed and less tensed up and yet have hypertension, many hypertensive patients are characterized by a generalized state of inner tensions, worries, anxiety, mental and emotional stress.
The earliest studies done 100 years ago revealed that hypertension was more common in men, whose works are stressful, or those who work under extreme pressure and who may not have time to engage in healthy exercises. Directors of big enterprises and people who are highly aggressive in the pursuit of earthly prominence and excellence and therefore, may have little or no time for spirituality or have no spiritual goals to balance up with the earthly and material pursuits, are among such people.
Spiritual exercise on a daily basis acts as a buffer against the inner tension, chronic stress, imbalance and disharmony that goes with all kinds of earthly and material striving.
Other factors that tighten or narrow the blood vessels all over the body are:
1) Nicotine in tobacco or cigarette may cause the narrowing of the blood vessels, especially when one is daily exposed to tobacco smoke either actively or through a secondary source.
2) Poor dietary habits, excessive alcohol intake, stimulants such as coffee or tea, or foods high in sodium e.g., white table salt, fatty foods as well as dairy products, may lead to nutritional excesses and deficiencies that can alter the structural integrity of the blood-carrying vessels.
3) Advancing age, obesity, lack of healthy physical exercises and sedentary lifestyles may cause the blood-carrying vessels to lose their flexibility and elasticity.
4) Hypertension or high blood pressure results when the blood-carrying vessels (the arteries and arterioles) become narrowed or constricted, thereby making the flow of blood through them difficult. As a compensatory measure, the heart may then raise the blood pressure by increasing the force of the contractions in order to pump blood through a narrowed space. It is the persistent increase in this force of the contractions that presumably results in what has become known as hypertension or high blood pressure.
5) As the heart muscles works harder and strains itself in order to pump blood through narrowed blood vessels and with the resultant sustained elevation in the arterial blood pressure and the turbulent flow of blood, the heart becomes enlarged and hypertrophied, especially the left ventricles which pump blood to the various parts of the body. An enlarged heart may progress to heart diseases (like, heart enlargement, heart palpitations, angina pectoris, heart attack, heart failure and premature death) due to loss of efficiency.
6) Also, the turbulent blood flow in the blood carrying vessels as a result of hypertension can damage the walls of the arteries and arterioles – and this can give rise to arteriosclerosis (a thickening, hardening and narrowing of the walls of the arteries), stroke, damage to the brain, poor memory, dementia, visual problems and blindness, kidney failures, leg pains etc.
The damages to the heart and the blood vessels increase exponentially if hypertension is accompanied with high blood sugar and cholesterol.
Symptoms of High Blood Pressure or Hypertension
Some of the patients may feel quite normal and calm without showing any clear-cut signs or symptoms of hypertension until they suddenly develop stroke with transient or permanent disability, heart attack, heart failure, etc, without being aware that the blood pressure has gone too high. Because of this, hypertension is known as the “silent killer.”
Only a few patients at the early stages of hypertension will experience headaches in the back of the head and upper part of the neck especially on waking up in the morning. Throbbing and pulsation in the temples, dizziness, lightheadedness, heart palpitations, inability to have restful and healing sleep, flushed complexion, shortness of breath, vision disturbances like: blurred vision, red eyes (or blood shot eyes), flickering before eyes or darkness, ringing in the ears, loss of memory and feeling like you are wearing a heavy helmet are all signs of hypertension.
Often times, hypertension is discovered only during routine physical examination.
...Drop a comment...thanks!
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