What are symptoms of hypertension?

Extremely high blood pressure may lead to some symptoms, however, and these include:

• Severe headaches
• Fatigue or confusion
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Problems with vision
• Chest pains
• Breathing problems
• Irregular heartbeat
• Blood in the urine

What causes hypertension?

Though the exact causes of hypertension are usually unknown, there are several factors that have been highly associated with the condition. These include:

• Smoking
• Obesity or being overweight
• Diabetes
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Lack of physical activity
• High levels of salt intake (sodium sensitivity)
• Insufficient calcium, potassium, and magnesium consumption
• Vitamin D deficiency
• High levels of alcohol consumption
• Stress
• Aging
• Medicines such as birth control pills
• Genetics and a family history of hypertension
• Chronic kidney disease
• Adrenal and thyroid problems or tumors

Statistics in the USA indicate that African Americans have a higher incidence of hypertension than other ethnicities.

What is White Coat Hypertension?

Most of us become a little anxious when we visit our doctors, and "white coat hypertension" is the term for the higher than usual blood pressure often recorded during a routine check. What we now know, however, is that if a doctor's visit begets high blood pressure, so does being late for an appointment, getting stuck in traffic, and getting a phone call from your car mechanic. It now appears that what used to be dismissed as a temporary increase in the blood pressure probably represents a true tendency to hypertension, which should be taken seriously and treated.

What Makes Blood Pressure Go Up? What Happens When it Does?

Blood pressure changes in each of us throughout our lives, and on a minute-to-minute basis. It tends to get higher as we age, and is usually lowest when we sleep. As we go through a normal day, it fluctuates and becomes elevated in response to stress, pain, hormonal levels, meals, and exercise. These are normal responses to our environment. In the disease of hypertension, the blood pressure becomes higher than necessary to maintain normal body functions. This elevation begins to damage the circulatory system, increasing the "wear and tear" everywhere there are blood vessels. The heart, which must work harder to push the blood through a higher-pressure environment, begins to increase in size. The walls of the heart thicken and the heart muscle doesn't relax normally. The walls of the blood vessels also thicken and become stiffer. They can develop damage to the inner lining of the blood vessel, with resulting cholesterol deposits at the places of damage. This process, known as atherosclerosis, can lead to strokes, heart attacks and blood vessel enlargements known as aneurysms.

What is Normal Blood Pressure?

The human heart pumps blood through the blood vessels in a wave-like pattern. The highest point of the wave corresponds to the heart's contraction. The blood pressure at the peak of the heart's contraction is known as the systolic blood pressure. When the heart relaxes, the blood pressure falls, and a lower level of blood pressure occurs, known as the diastolic blood pressure. This systolic and diastolic blood pressure is measured at routine doctor's visits and hospitalizations. If you are told that your blood pressure is 120 over 80, then your systolic pressure is 120 and your diastolic pressure is 80. This is an ideal blood pressure. Hypertension is defined as an elevation in the blood pressure over these ideal levels. The upper limit of normal is now defined as 135(systolic pressure) over 85(diastolic). If either the systolic or the diastolic blood pressure is persistently greater than this, hypertension is said to be present.