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Natural Health News Articles
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| Posted: 7th August 2004 |
| Hypertension |
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Arterial hypertension, or high blood pressure is a medical condition where the blood pressure is chronically elevated. Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes and heart attacks and is a leading cause of kidney failure.
Signs and symptoms
Hypertension does not normally present with any symptoms. It is commonly detected through "case finding" by doctors. Malignant hypertension (or accelerated hypertension) is a distinct condition, which presents with headaches, blurred vision and end-organ damage.
Definition
Hypertension is currently defined as a blood pressure above 140/90 mmHg measured on both arms at two instances (several weeks apart). Recently there have been calls to define blood pressure over 135/85 as "pre-hypertension".
Diagnosis
Over 90% of all hypertension has no known cause and is therefore called "essential/primary hypertension". Often, it is part of the Syndrome X in patients with insulin resistance: it occurs in combination with diabetes mellitus (type 2), combined hyperlipidemia and central obesity.
Important causes of secondary hypertension are:
Renal artery stenosis
Pheochromocytoma
Hyperaldosteronism (Conn's syndrome)
Cushing's disease
Steroid use
Coarcation of the aorta
Chronic renal failure
Scleroderma crisis
Liquorice (when consumed in excessive amounts)
Blood tests commonly performed in a newly diagnosed hypertension patient are:
Creatinine (renal function)
Electrolytes (sodium, potassium)
Glucose (to identify diabetes mellitus)
Cholesterol
Treatment
Doctors recommend weight loss and regular exercise as the first step in treating mild to moderate hypertension. Both of these steps are highly effective in reducing blood pressure. Unfortunately these actions are easier to suggest that to achieve and most patients with moderate or severe hypertension end up requiring indefinite drug therapy to bring their blood pressure down to a safe level.
Mild hypertension is usually treated by diet, exercise and improved physical fitness. |
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