High blood pressure or hypertension is the most common primary diagnosis in the United States with 35 million office visits last year alone. Why is this significant? Because it does not account for the millions of undiagnosed people not being treated for this very serious problem. The main reason for the unaccounted cases is this. For the most part you feel healthy.
You’re probably slowing down a little in your middle age and have a few more aches and pains than you did when you were 20 but nothing a few anti-inflammatories can’t take care of. So you don’t feel the need to go to the doctor for checkups, ever. This is a problem because as physicians, we not only address current problems or issues which you may be having at the time of your visit, but we also assess your general well-being and focus on preventive medicine. The reason hypertension is a silent disease is because in lesser forms, it is symptom-free and will not be discovered until it is checked.
In order for you to really get a handle on what’s at stake here, a basic lesson in human physiology is in order. Blood vessels carrying oxygen-rich blood is the life force for all vital organs namely the brain, heart and kidneys. These organs are required to sustain life. When pressure rises in these blood vessels, the oxygen to these organs diminishes causing tissue damage or even cell death. Depending upon the severity, this process may take months to years to evolve. But if left untreated, eventually heart attack, stroke and kidney failure will ensue.
Once diagnosed, the main goal is to maintain blood pressure in the normal range. Over the years, this normal range gets lower and lower. You may know a familiar pressure of ‘120 over 80’ as being normal. According to the seventh report of the Joint National Committee (JNC 7), which is the recognized guideline for physicians, 120 over 80 is now considered pre-hypertension. Normal pressure is now below 120 over 80. This means that doctors have to be more aggressive in treating high blood pressure, be it through lifestyle changes or with medicine.
Regardless if you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure or not, certain measures may help you in the long run. Try and limit your salt intake as much as possible. Daily aerobic exercise for up to 60 minutes a day will also improve your cardiovascular status. Other factors such as having high cholesterol and diabetes will affect how your doctor wants to treat you, probably opting for medicine along with dietary and lifestyle changes. The moral of this story is get your blood pressure checked by your doctor to see how healthy you really are. Eating right and exercising will definitely help, but may not necessarily be enough depending upon the severity of the disease. And taking simple measures in the beginning will prove to be a huge pay off in the end if the disease is caught early on.
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