Hypertension is a highly risky disorder and can lead to heart diseases, lethal health complications, strokes, and worse, death. This disorder forces the blood to press against an individual’s blood vessels, and the pressure depends on how sturdy your blood vessels are.
Studies indicate that almost half of all United States adults live with high blood pressure. A large percentage of them are, however, not aware.
Hypertension has many risk factors, with the most obvious being cardiovascular diseases like stroke, heart failure, aneurysm, and heart attack. When kept in control, the patient has better odds of averting these risks.
Read along for the most prevalent risk factors of high blood pressure.
Arterial Damage
In their best state, arteries should be strong, elastic, and flexible. When you have hypertension, the interior blood pressure in your arteries gradually increases, as a result causing:
- Damaged and narrowed arteries. Hypertension damages the cells in the inner lining of your arteries. Dietary fats in the form of cholesterol can also gather into your bloodstream and lodge onto your damaged arteries. In the end, your arteries are robbed of their elasticity, and it becomes harder for blood to flow through them
- Aneurysm. As blood constantly moves through your damaged arteries, it can cause sections of them to enlarge and bulge. This bulge is called an aneurysm. An aneurism can rapture and cause lethal internal bleeding. This is one of the reasons you need to visit an emergency room near you for testing and screening for hypertension.
Heart Damage
The following heart problems may arise from high blood pressure.
- Coronary Artery Disease. This occurs when arteries supplying blood to your heart become narrow due to high blood pressure, and can’t supply blood efficiently. When blood flow to your heart is unnatural, you can experience chest pains, irregular heart pulses (arrhythmias), and worse, a heart attack.
- Enflamed left heart. In all cases of hypertension, the heart is forced to overwork to circulate blood throughout your body. The left ventricle thus thickens. As a result, there is a high risk of heart attack, sudden cardiac death, or heart failure. Symptoms need to be reported immediately to the nearest ER.
- Heart Failure. Heart failure comes about when heart muscles grow weak when they overwork to pump blood. They then become less efficient, and the heart is overwhelmed and begins to fail. Constant heart attacks greatly contribute to this problem.
Brain Damage
Since the brain depends on a noble amount of blood supply to work properly, high blood pressure can cause a few problems, including:
- Stroke. When there is an insufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to part of your brain, several brain cells die, leading to a stroke. High blood pressure causes some blood vessels to rupture and leak, or cause clots inside arteries supplying blood to the brain. When blood flow is blocked, a stroke is the immediate risk factor. Strokes can be lethal and should be reported in the emergency room in Abilene immediately.
- Dementia. In particular, hypertension leads to vascular dementia. It arises from limited blood flow to the brain due to narrowed arteries or due to a stroke that limits blood flow to the brain.
- Transient Ischemic Attack. TIA is also called a mini-stroke and is an indication that you could suffer a full-blown strike. It’s brought by a temporary disruption of blood flow to your brain due to clots in blood vessels.
- Mild Cognitive Impairment. It’s an aging condition characterized by changes in understanding and poor memory. Lethal problems brought by dementia can cause this impairment. High blood pressure is also a contributor.
Kidney Damage
The following Kidney problems can arise from hypertension.
- Kidney Scarring. The tiny blood vessels that filter fluids and wastes within the kidney can get scarred and are unable to function properly. The result is Glomerulosclerosis, which leads to kidney failure.
- Kidney Failure. When blood vessels become damaged, they disable the kidney from filtering out waste from your blood. There is, therefore, an accumulation of fluid and wastes in your bloodstream. You might need a kidney transplant or dialysis.
Eye Damage
Effects of hypertension to the eyes include:
- Retinopathy. Retina, the light-sensitive part of your eye, can get affected when the delicate blood vessels supplying blood to the heart are damaged. The result is blurred vision, eye bleeding, and even total loss of vision. The effects are worse if you have diabetes together with high blood pressure.
- Choroidopathy. This is the buildup of fluid under the retina. It causes distorted vision and scars that substantially impair vision.
- Nerve Damage. The optic nerve can get damaged by blocked blood flow, causing bleeding in the eye or loss of vision.
Other effects of hypertension include Sexual Dysfunction, which causes the inability to maintain an erection in men. It’s also called erectile dysfunction.
Hypertension emergencies such as heart attacks and kidney failure require an immediate visit to an express ER.