Complications of Hypertension

The symptoms of hypertension include headaches, fatigue, dizziness, ringing in the ears and frequent nosebleeds. But not all people experience these.

In fact, the majority of hypertensive persons have no obvious symptoms. One may have high blood pressure for years without noticing anything or feeling different. Because of this, the problem is usually ignored.

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Doing so, however, is your ticket to an early grave. For hypertension can extensively damage the body. Over the years, the excessive force of blood on the artery walls can lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and other serious complications.

"High blood pressure ranks as the main cause of stroke because it weakens arteries in the brain, paving the way for a rupture or blood clot. It also contributes to coronary atherosclerosis (the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries that nourish the heart) which increases the risk of a heart attack. It damages tiny vessels in the kidney that are needed for filtering the blood, which can lead to kidney failure. High blood pressure can also cause blindness by damaging vessels that provide blood to the eye's retina," according to Larry Katzenstein, senior editor of American Health magazine.

"The fact that high blood pressure is a 'silent killer' and a major cause of death and disability was not always appreciated. Medical books published in the early 1900s didn't even list hypertension in the index. And as recently as 1950, there were doctors who believed that as long as you were feeling fine, high blood pressure didn't mean a thing. The magnitude of the problem and its impact on health is now more realistically understood," added Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld of the New York Hospital - Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center in "The Best Treatment."

What can you do about hypertension? For mild cases (in which blood pressure measures 140/90 or 140/104), lifestyle changes may be all that's necessary. This is preferable than taking drugs and is the approach used by most doctors.

"In most instances, mild hypertension can be controlled once you remove the factors that, contribute to it. Since many of these factors are controllable, modifying these through lifestyle changes will often result in an improve¬ment of a person's condition," said Dr. Desiree M. Narvaez, a medical specialist formerly with the Department of Health Non-Communicable Disease Control Service in Manila.

"Two factors account for the shift away from drugs in treating mild hypertension: uncertainty over whether their benefits outweigh their unpleasant and possibly harmful side effects, which can range from fatigue and headaches to elevated cholesterol levels; and recent evidence that nondrug approaches can often lower blood pressure to normal levels," Katzenstein added. (Next: Drugless ways to fight hypertension.)

Complications of Hypertension

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