What Is Hypertension?
Hypertension, also known as High Blood Pressure (HBP), is a medical condition in which the force of blood flowing through the blood vessels is consistently high. In other words, when your blood pressure remains elevated for an extended period of time.
How Do We Test Blood Pressure?
In order to test your blood pressure, your health care provider would instruct you to sit in a chair with both feet flat on the floor and rest your arm on the table. They would then wrap a blood pressure cuff around your arm and inflate it using an automated blood pressure monitor. If your blood pressure is elevated your provider would repeat the test two more times.
How Is Blood Pressure Measured?
Blood pressure is divided into two readings, the systolic pressure and diastolic pressure readings. On most automated monitors there would also be a third reading called the pulse reading.
The systolic pressure value is the first or upper number. It is a measurement of the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats.
The diastolic pressure value is the second or lower number. It is a measurement of the pressure in your arteries when your heart rests between beats.
The pulse reading is the third number. This is a measurement of your heart rate or the number of times your heart beats per minute.
Hypertension can be caused by a variety of factors such as;
It can be avoided by reducing the amount of salt we consume on a daily basis; for example, your doctor may recommend that you change your diet to replace salted meats (salt fish, pigtails) and fast food with foods high in potassium, fibre, and protein and low in salt (sodium) and saturated fat, thereby lowering the risk of blood clotting.
Other preventive measures include frequent exercise, which lowers the risk of obesity. Adults should get at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week.
There are some persons who experience shortness of breath or nosebleeds when their blood pressure is life-threateningly high. However, most people with hypertension show no signs or symptoms even if they are experiencing a hypertensive crisis this is why hypertension is often referred to as a “silent killer”. For this reason, it is critical to check your blood regularly if you have hypertension.
If your blood pressure remains 140/90 mmHg even after resting for 5 minutes and rechecking your blood pressure then you should seek medical attention.
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