The disorder of high blood pressure, medically called hypertension, is one of the most widespread diseases in the world nowadays. High blood pressure can be caused by poor lifestyle choices often seen in the modern age (secondary hypertension), but it can also occur spontaneously and have a genetic basis (essential or primary hypertension).
There are a lot of drugs on the market today that are designed to lower the pressure. The medication or combination of medications prescribed to someone with high blood pressure must be chosen carefully because patients that have troubles with high blood pressure often have at least one more health problem. When a doctor prescribes medications, they need to make sure that these drugs do not interact with other drugs a patient is using, or make another medical condition worse.
To treat the condition of high blood pressure, patients should realize that it is highly advisable to rely even more on a healthier lifestyle — it will not always normalize blood pressure, but has a good chance of reducing it at least slightly.
So, precautions people diagnosed with hypertension should take include avoiding the following triggers: smoking, drinking alcohol and eating foods with a lot of salt and fat; and introducing exercises and a diet that is rich in vegetables and fruits.
As already mentioned, hypertension is often related with and can lead to other health problems, such as a risk of coronary artery disease, a prior heart attack or stroke, and the heart failure, diabetes, a kidney disorder and anatomical problems, for example, an enlarged left chamber of the heart.
Depending on the numbers of both, the systolic, and diastolic blood pressure (the first one is the higher number when measuring), there are the two stages of hypertension. The first stage is blood pressure below 160/100, and the second stage is when the blood pressure is higher than 160/100.
Of course, the first stage of hypertension is defined as a milder condition and the treatment includes beta blockers (that tranquilize the nerve response to the heart), angiotensin II receptor blockers (that make the blood vessels wider), calcium channel blockers (that stop the calcium to enter into the heart) and ACE inhibitors. Diuretics, which are designed to drain excess water and other substances from the body, are still most commonly seen as the first-choice treatment for high blood pressure.
At the same time, your doctor will advise you to make any lifestyle changes that you have not already embraced, to increase your odds of lowering your blood pressure on your own.
In the case of the second stage of hypertension, it is likely that patients will be prescribed a combination of different medications, and the dosage also increases. Also, diuretics are the obligatory medications, and they are followed by the same types of the drugs that are previously mentioned, but an alpha blocker could be included in the treatment, since there is a danger of acute problems, such as stroke or heart attack.
Therefore, it is important to emphasize that in the case of very high blood pressure, the pressure must be lowered down as quickly as possible, so that serious medical complications and severe damages could be avoided.
Your thoughts on this
Loading...