Treating high blood pressure

Chest | Cardiology | Treating high blood pressure (Disease)


Description

Hypertension is the term used to describe high blood pressure. Blood pressure is a measurement of the force against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood through your body. Blood pressure readings are usually given as two numbers - for example, 120 over 80 (written as 120/80 mmHg). One or both of these numbers can be too high.

Causes and Risk factors

Many factors can affect blood pressure, including: the quantity of water and salt in the body, the condition of kidneys, nervous system, or blood vessels, the levels of different body hormones.

A person is more likely to have high blood pressure as he or she gets older. This is because the blood vessels become stiffer with the age. When that happens, the blood pressure goes up. High blood pressure increases the chance of having a stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease, and early death.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for stroke, myocardial infarction (heart attacks), heart failure, aneurysms of the arteries (e. g. aortic aneurysm), peripheral arterial disease and is a cause of chronic kidney disease. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure is associated with a shortened life expectancy.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Drug treatment is based on clinical supervision and has lots of principles. Treatment is ongoing, permanent. The goal of treatment is lowering blood pressure under 13/8, 5cmHg.

Treatment is individualized, that is specific to a particular patient. Do not compare your treatment with the other patient, because, depending on individual characteristics may be different, sometimes total, and both are correct! It usually combines two or three drugs in different classes (see below classes of drugs) in lower doses than one medicine is prescribed in high dose, decreasing the risk of side effects. Do not change the dose of medication alone, on an increased pressure must increase the dose of drugs! Go to the doctor, because simply increasing the dose may be followed by significant side effects, no blood pressure to drop! If a drug is prescribed in small doses (half a tablet, a tablet) in resembles or is very high or very high can cause side effects, therefore, not only increase the dose of medication!Do not add another drug alone, without advice, because of the antagonistic effects between drugs. Discontinuation is usually followed by rapid increases in blood pressure with risk of stroke.

Simple discontinuation increases blood pressure, but associated with consumption growth of salt or alcohol can cause serious immediate rise in blood is high on the association of these three factors!The combination of alcohol with medicines, but if you still want to risk eating salty or alcohol, take drugs voltage still a few hours (3-4 hours) before of this excess, and continue to take them after normal time of non-medical indications passed. Medications used to ...