Know About High Blood Pressure

Arteries carry blood from heart to rest of the parts of the body under a particular constant pressure. If this pressure is elevated then it is called high blood pressure. This pressure is the pressure applied by the blood on the walls of arteries. It is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm hg). High blood pressure is also called hypertension. Medical practitioners’ record blood pressure as two values, systolic blood pressure that is the pressure in the arteries as the heart squeezes out blood during each beat. Another is diastolic blood pressure, which is the pressure when the heart relaxes before the next beat. Though normal blood pressure is considered to be 120/80 but there are no hard and fast figures which represent the normal blood pressure. Blood pressure between 110/70 and 125/80 is taken for average blood pressure for an adult. 140/90 or above is considered to be high blood pressure, but when the person grows older this falls to be normal range. It also transfers genetically from one generation to another, so it important to keep an eye on your blood pressure if your parents have history of high blood pressure.Hypertension can be cause of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney and eye problems. It can also cause mental problems such as memory lost. There are no symptoms to identify high blood pressure and therefore many people are unaware that they have it. It usually does not give warning signs and therefore it is also referred as ‘silent killer’. It can be fatal therefore is always necessary to be careful about it. Number of people suffering from it is increasing rapidly. During last 10 years the number of people in America suffering from this disease has increased by 30%. About 34% of African Americans men and women have high blood pressure and this is responsible for over 40% of deaths in this group. This disease is also becoming common in children and teenage.To avoid the complications of high blood pressure a person must adopt a healthy life style which includes exercise on a daily basis, maintaining normal weight, healthy diet, reasonable alcohol consumption, taking sodium in limited amount, increasing the amount of potassium and calcium in diet. These are some keys to maintain normal blood pressure. A person must be conscious if he or she has high blood pressure and should take some steps to control his or her blood pressure.

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