What is hypertension?
Hypertension is when the pressure inside your arteries is consistently higher than it should be. The blood pumps through more forcefully, putting increased pressure on the artery walls and causing damage.
Hypertension is commonly called high blood pressure. The distinction is that hypertension is a disease where your BP is always elevated, as opposed to one or two abnormal blood pressure readings.
What causes high blood pressure?
There’s no one cause of hypertension. It comes on slowly over time, due to an array of factors:
- Age – As you get older, your blood vessels lose some elasticity, which increases your risk of hypertension.
- Race – High blood pressure is more common among Black people than other races.
- Family History – Hypertension tends to run in the family.
- Weight – If you’re overweight or obese, your body pumps more blood, increasing the pressure inside your arteries.
- Physical Activity – A sedentary lifestyle or lack of exercise is linked to higher blood pressure.
- Lifestyle Choices – Drinking too much alcohol, smoking or vaping and eating an unhealthy (especially, salty) diet can raise your blood pressure.
- Chronic Stress – Periods of high stress gets your blood pressure up, where it stays unless you ease the stress.
Other conditions such as kidney disease, sleep apnea and diabetes can also cause hypertension. When there’s an underlying condition raising your blood pressure, it’s called secondary hypertension.
What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?
Hypertension is a silent disease that rarely shows noticeable warning signs. Often, the only way to catch high blood pressure is through multiple abnormal readings. Without routine blood pressure screening, you can have hypertension for years without knowing it.
Some people get headaches, nosebleeds or shortness of breath. Each of those are common issues that aren’t easily associated with hypertension, especially if they don’t reach a frequency or level of seriousness that makes you bring it up to your doctor.
How do you know it’s hypertension and not temporary high blood pressure?
A blood pressure check is a routine part of every visit to your doctor. A nurse will wrap a cuff on your arm, inflate it with a few squeezes of a ball, then release the pressure once they have a reading. Anything above 130/80 is considered high.
One high blood pressure reading is not a concern. High blood pressure can come and go depending on the situation. For example, some people have “white coat syndrome,” where the nerves of an office visit gets their blood pressure up, but screenings done at home or somewhere else don’t.
If you show a pattern of high blood pressure readings — either in consecutive office visits or readings elsewhere — your doctor may diagnose you with hypertension and begin looking for a contributing cause. To reach a diagnosis, they may also do additional testing. EKGs, echocardiograms, blood tests, urine tests and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring can help confirm the diagnosis and identify potential causes.
How do you treat hypertension?
You can easily manage — or reverse — hypertension with lifestyle changes, blood pressure medication or a combination of both. Hypertension in its earliest stage (above 130/80 but below 140/90) is easier to treat with lifestyle changes like:
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Eating a heart-healthy diet that’s rich in fruits, veggies and whole grains.
- Increasing the potassium in your diet and limiting the salt.
- Exercising regularly
- Getting quality sleep every night
- Drinking in moderation or abstaining entirely
- Quitting smoking, vaping or chewing
When you have hypertension, you have to manage it for the rest of your life. Following the healthy habits above often go a long way in keeping your blood pressure in check.
Sometimes hypertension is more stubborn — or your health requires getting it under control more quickly than with lifestyle changes alone. In those cases, your doctor may prescribe blood pressure medicine temporarily or long-term to help manage your disease.
Doctors have a first-line of defense against hypertension — a list of effective drugs to manage high blood pressure:
- ACE inhibitors block production of a hormone that helps prevent your blood vessels from narrowing.
- ARBs get the same result by blocking the hormone from binding with receptors in your blood vessels.
- Water pills flush your blood of excess sodium and fluids, reducing the pressure in your arteries.
- Calcium channel blockers help relax blood vessels by preventing calcium from getting into your heart and arteries.
Each type of blood pressure medication targets your body differently and may be used in combination with each other or different drugs to control hypertension.
When should I see my doctor about high blood pressure?
Schedule an annual check-up with your Internal Medicine physician for a routine blood pressure screening. Or talk to your doctor about your family history or individual risk factors for hypertension. Preventing high blood pressure takes the same lifestyle modifications as treating it after a diagnosis, so your provider can help you make the necessary changes.
Your ideal blood pressure range varies with your age and health conditions. Schedule an appointment if you have concerns about your health or blood pressure readings taken outside the clinic.