What is blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the amount of force that our blood puts on our artery walls as it moves through our body. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood from our heart to the rest of our body. When our heart beats, it pushes our blood through our arteries. As the blood moves, it puts pressure on our artery walls. This is called our blood pressure.
High blood pressure (also called hypertension) occurs when our blood moves through our arteries at a higher pressure than normal. There are many causes of high blood pressure. This disorder can damage many parts of the body. If one has high blood pressure, it increases risk of stroke, heart disease, heart attack and kidney failure. Controlling one’s blood pressure can reduce these risks.
What are the symptoms of hypertension?
If you are looking for a list of symptoms and signs of hyertension, you won’t find them here. This is because most of the time, there are none. Hypertension is a largely symptom-less “silent killer.” If you ignore hypertension because you think a certain symptom or sign will alert you to the problem, you are taking a dangerous chance with your life.
- In most cases, hypertension does not cause headaches or nosebleeds.
- Blood spots in the eyes (subconjunctival hemorrhage) are more common in people with diabetes or hypertension, but neither condition causes the blood spots. Floaters in the eyes are also not related to hypertension.
- Facial flushing occurs when blood vessels in the face dilate. It can occur unpredictably or in response to certain triggers such as sun exposure, cold weather, spicy foods, wind, hot drinks and skin-care products. Facial flushing can also occur with emotional stress, exposure to heat or hot water, alcohol consumption and exercise — all of which can raise blood pressure temporarily. While facial flushing may occur while your blood pressure is higher than usual, hypertension is not the cause of facial flushing.
- While dizziness can be a side effect of some medications, it is not caused by hypertension. However, dizziness should not be ignored, especially if the onset is sudden. Sudden dizziness, loss of balance or coordination and trouble walking are all warning signs of a stroke. These could be signs of a stroke.
About 85 million Americans – one out of every three adults over age 20 – have hypertension. (Nearly 20% don’t even know they have it.) The best way to know if you have hypertension is to see a doctor. Therefore, come into Statcare today.
Walk-in to any of our clinics, get your blood pressure checked and talk to our providers.No appointment is necessary at our clinics and you’ll only wait minutes to be seen. You can call ahead at (917) 310-3371 and let us know you’re on the way or you can check in online.
Source: AHA
