Overview \ Heart Disease \ Cancer \ Hypertension \ Stroke \ Osteoporosis \

Diabetes \ Obesity \ Alzheimer’s Disease

In normal circumstances, blood pressure drops when one is asleep and rises when one is subjected to stress, startled by a loud noise, or threatened.

Hypertension or high blood pressure happens when the pressure exerted by blood against the arterial wall stays abnormally high (140/90 mmHg or greater), resulting in blood circulating through the arteries with excessive force, possibly harming the arteries and causing risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.

Complications from hypertension could result in stroke, heart attack, heart failure (weakening of the heart’s pumping mechanism), and kidney failure.

Common causes of it are unknown in the majority of cases. A major factor is age. From middle age onwards, one’s risk for this disease increases as arteries become rigid causing increased resistance to blood flow elevating its pressure.

Other factors are heredity, gender (it affects men more than women), smoking, excessive alcohol and salt intake, obesity, lack of exercise and excessive stress. Specific causes point to diabetes, kidney disease, adrenal disorders, congenital heart defects, pre-eclampsia, and certain drugs (for example, oral contraceptives).

Many people go for years without knowing that they have hypertension. This is why it is called a “silent killer”. The only way to tell is to have one’s blood pressure checked regularly.