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Hypertension- The Silent Killer

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Your Nurse Champions

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Posted on

Dec 20, 2024

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Florida - Southwest

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Hypertension or high blood pressure is a common condition medical professionals call the silent killer. Silent because having elevated blood pressure often goes undetected for years or decades as it slowly causes fatal changes throughout the body, leading to death.

Common comorbidities of prolonged hypertension include: kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, angina, dementia, vision loss, blindness, sexual dysfunction, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, fatigue, artery damage, blood clots, and much more.

Unfortunately, many individuals do not know or treat hypertension until the damage has already taken place. But it's not too late. There are many methods and options available to treat and eliminate this life threatening condition.

The traditional method of treating hypertension consists of a doctor's visit, finding of hypertension, a series of cardiac studies, and then being prescribed medication.

Often this is accompanied by a diagnosis of genetic hypertension, familial hypertension, secondary hypertension or idiopathic hypertension (unknown cause). Regardless of the diagnosis, the underlying cause can go unnoticed and untreated. Frankly, because there is not enough time and individuality to this approach.

The band aid approach.

So what's a normal blood pressure? Ideally 120/60.

When does blood pressure become dangerous? When your systolic pressure (the first number) rises above and sustains above 150 you should be concerned.

Long term effects of elevated blood pressure leads to interior vessel damage and therefore creates even more of a risk to you such as narrowing of the blood vessel, clotting and arteriosclerosis.

So what generally leads to hypertension?

Some causes for hypertension include obesity, hypernatremia or high sodium, lack of exercise, elevated homocysteine, sleep deprivation, substance use, smoking, stress, hypercholesterol or high fats in the blood, diabetes, kidney dysfunction, lung disease, diet and age.

Getting to the core issue and addressing the primary cause or causes of hypertension is the ideal treatment.

Unfortunately this is often challenging and time consuming for individuals to navigate themselves. They find there is no direct guidance from medical professionals. Instead the medication seems to be the end all be all approach.

Most providers are unfortunately taught this method in school and are not programmed to use a holistic approach.

Depending on the cause of hypertension, there are methods and scientifically proven lifestyle changes that can eliminate the silent killer in your life, without having to take medication with harmful side effects.

Here are some general non-specific ways to treat hypertension:

1. Sodium. Water follows salt. The more salt you digest, the more water that attaches to it. This fills up the veins and arteries, and the pressure makes the heart have to work harder to pump. By reducing sodium intake, we reduce the amount of fluid in our vascular space and lessen the workload of the heart.

2. Quit smoking. Smoking causes damage to the inside of our vessels, contributes to blood clotting, and damages your lungs. The damage in your lungs causes a backup of blood flow.

3. Exercise. Your heart is its own muscle and requires exercise. When we exercise, we require the heart to improve endurance. Therefore when we are at rest, it has an easier time pumping blood.

4. Diet. Eating a well balanced diet can reduce excess cholesterol. Bad cholesterol component that accumulates inside your vessels. When this happens, the opening becomes smaller making the heart have to pump harder to push through.

5. Weight loss. Losing excess weight means the body needs less blood to feed extra tissue. When we lose weight, we reduce the need for the heart to pump harder to feed the excess mass. The extra pumping causes the heart muscle to become large then sets into other diseases, such as heart failure.

6. Stress reduction. Stress induces a response in our body, causing inflammation, increasing our heart rate and narrowing our vessels. This again causes the heart to have to pump harder and thus increases our blood pressure.

Utilizing an experienced certified nurse and wellness coach can bridge the gap between lifestyle modification and optimal health. By utilizing this approach, you can obtain a personal and individualized plan and treatment for hypertension and other ailments concurrently.

To learn more about a specific plan designed for you or to schedule a free consultation, click below. I would be happy to see if we are a good fit to work together and begin living the life you were designed for and the care you deserve.

To view the original version of this article visit www.yournursechampions.com/post/hypertension-the-silent-killer-1
Seniors Blue Book was not involved in the creation of this content.

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