High blood pressure, hypertension, is called the “silent killer” because most people don’t know they have it until a doctor tells them. Its symptoms are so mild and they usually develop so slowly, that it creeps up without the person knowing it. The symptoms of hypertension are as follows:

• morning headaches
• ringing in the ears
• unexplained dizziness
• spontaneous nose bleeds
• depression without apparent cause
• blurred vision
• tension when there’s no cause
• flushing or redness of the face and nose
• fainting spells

People with hypertension seldom get all the symptoms and many never get any of them. In addition, they can be so mild, or start so slowly that a person becomes accustomed to them. That’s what makes hypertension an insidious disease.

No one ever dies of high blood pressure. People who have hypertension die of other illnesses or catastrophes that high blood pressure causes or makes much more severe.

Common causes of deaths are heart attack, stroke, heart failure, angina, and other problems. High blood pressure detracts from the quality of life by causing kidney failure, poor eyesight, and other problems.

Diastolic blood pressure of 100 increases the probability of an early death to twice that of someone with normal blood pressure. Put in simple terms, if you’ve got high blood pressure, your chances of an early death are double. If you have several risk-factors, for example, high cholesterol and are overweight, your risk is about five times the normal. In addition, the quality of your life as you get older is certain to deteriorate more rapidly. The golden years can easlity become the lead years.

Pitfalls of Medication

Every medication has side effects. In fact, the desired effect of blood pressure medication is only one of its effects on the body. All other effects are unwanted, or simply side effects. Mental effects range from simple headaches to periods of “blackout” during which the sufferer doesn’t know what’s going on. Physical effects range from simple dry mouth to complete sexual inadequacy for men. All these drugs control high blood pressure, and for about 11% of its victims, some medication is required. For the other 89%, there’s a more effective way to control high blood pressure: diet.

Two Types of High Blood Pressure Secondary

Secondary hypertension, as the name implies, is secondary, or a side effect of some other illness. For example, adrenal tumors cause high blood pressure; pregnancy sometimes causes it in women; some kidney disorders and other conditions also cause hypertension. Once the causative condition is corrected, the blood pressure returns to normal, for example, if the tumor is removed, the woman has her baby, or the kidney disease is cured. Secondary hypertension should be looked upon as temporary and curable. It accounts for about 10% of all high blood pressure. Only about 1% of a population will ever get secondary hypertension.

Essential Hypertension

About 90% of all high blood pressure is called essential hypertension. Its cause is related to a number of environmental factors. These factors include heredity, overweight, salt consumption, alcohol, and other dietary factors. They are all controllable. In our society, about 20% of all adults have essential hypertension. It increases in percentage as people get older. About 75% of people over age 65 have essential hypertension.

Smoking

Smoking can cause high blood pressure all by itself. It does this by two mechanisms: the toxic chemicals from the smoke tense the arteries and capillaries and interfere with metabolism. If you smoke and have high blood pressure, you’ve got to stop smoking. Smoking is a tough addition to break, but the rewards are worth it. The rewards include a longer, healthier life with a much reduced likelihood of cancer, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, poor vision, and emphysema. If those aren’t reason enough, recognize that smoking causes more wrinkles and poor skin color. If you find that you can’t do it on your own, I urge you to join a formal program. It’s worth it!

Overweight

Being fat causes high blood pressure for two reasons. Each pound of fat requires about five miles of small blood vessels called capillaries. It follows that the heart must pump harder to push blood through these extra capillaries. Pushing harder means high blood pressure. So the first reason is that simple. Being fat increases blood pressure for a second, more complex reason. Extra fat makes some people produce more hormone insulin. Insulin is absolutely necessary for the body to use the blood sugar, glucose. It helps transport glucose into each cell of the body. Overweight people produce excess insulin because their extra fat cells require more of it than the fat cells of other people. If insulin didn’t have an effect on the kidney, this would be okay; but excess insulin causes the kidneys to raise the blood pressure. The reason why the kidney raises the blood pressure when excess insulin is present is very complex and includes other hormones. It’s another reason why people with high blood pressure should limit their use of sugar.

When overweight people have high blood pressure, both of these mechanisms are a work. Usually all they must do is lose weight, get a few other dietary factors correct, and their high blood pressure disappears completely. The dietary factors include a low sugar, high carbohydrate diet. It’s that simple.

Supplementation

Supplementation in high blood pressure accomplishes two things. It makes up for dietary shortfalls, and it can meet the exaggerated needs of the hypertensive. A person who has high blood pressure is not the same as other people. They’ve got added needs that must be met. Unlike other folks, if these needs aren’t satisfied, the blood pressure just gets worse. Then, when the blood pressure gets worse or persists for a long time, other problems develop and get worse. For example, people with high blood pressure develop heart disease, bad kidneys, poor eyesight and other problems that shorten their lives and reduce the quality.

The high blood pressure diet has possible shortfalls in some of the B vitamins and a number of minerals. That is why it is imperative to take a multivitamin daily along with the following supplements: B-Complex,Vitamin C, EPA, Calcium-Magnesium,Vitamin E with Selenium,Fiber and Alfalfa.

Also, make sure you get your cardio health supplements to maintain a strong, healthy heart.

Lifestyle

Once you’ve got your diet and dietary supplements under control, there are two new habits that you need to establish: exercise and stress control. The best way to deal with stress is to exercise. It’s therapeutic because it helps the body rid itself of all the hormones and toxic by-products from anxiety.

Information obtained from A Better Health Series, Food Supplements for High Blood Pressure, by Dr. James Scala

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 7:26 am and is filed under Mens Health, Weight Loss, Womens Health, health, minerals, nutrition, vitamins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.