Heart disease risk factors -High Blood Pressure

Risk Factors you can change - Blood Pressure

High blood pressure increases your chances of having a heart attack or a stroke. The higher the pressure, the higher the risk. If it is left untreated for a long time high blood pressure can also lead to other problems such as an enlarged heart and eventually heart failure, kidney failure and even damage to your eyesight. The good news is that high blood pressure is easy to detect and once treated, your chances of having a stroke or a heart attack or any of the other problems are reduced.

Why?

For reasons that are not understood, high blood pressure causes thickening of the walls of arteries. This means the heart has to work harder to circulate the blood. In addition, constant wear and tear of blood flowing at high pressure damages the delicate smooth lining of the artery walls and allows build up of cholesterol on the damaged areas. If this happens in the arteries surrounding the heart (the coronary arteries), angina and heart attack may follow and if it occurs in the arteries supplying the brain, a stroke may result.

How can I tell if I've got high blood pressure?

The only way to find out is to have it measured. Everyone should know what his or her blood pressure is. Health professionals recommend that everyone should have their blood pressure measured at least every few years. As you don't feel ill with high blood pressure, you can have it for a long time but not know about it.

What is blood pressure?
Everybody has - and needs - blood pressure! Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in your arteries and a certain amount of blood pressure is necessary to keep blood flowing around your body. When your heart beats, it pumps blood all around the body, forcing blood through a network of arteries and veins. Blood pressure rises and falls as the heart contacts and then relaxes to refill with blood. The peak pressure is called the systolic and the minimum pressure the diastolic. When you have your blood pressure measured two numbers are written down for example 130/75 and the pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mm Hg). The top number is the systolic pressure and bottom number is the diastolic pressure and both numbers are important when it comes to high blood pressure. There is much debate about what constitutes 'normal' blood pressure but the latest guidelines suggest:


	Systolic blood pressure mmHg	Diastolic blood pressure mmHg
Optimal	<120	<80
Normal	<130	<85
High normal	130-139	85-89
Raised blood pressure is considered to be anything over 140/90mmHg. Blood pressure is variable and will change over 24 hours, being higher during the day and lower when you are asleep at night. Also it will go up temporarily when you are physically active, excited or stressed. That's why one reading is really just a snapshot and several readings should be taken over a period of time before making a judgement about whether or not you have high blood pressure.

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Why?

How can I tell if I've got high blood pressure?

What is blood pressure?

Systolic blood pressure mmHg

Diastolic blood pressure mmHg