Myth: Nervousness, sweating, difficulty sleeping or facial flushing are the early signs that every hypertensive patient will experience.
Fact: High blood pressure is mostly symptomless “Silent Killer”. If you ignore your blood pressure because you don’t have the early signs and symptoms, then you are taking a dangerous chance with your life.
In most cases, there are no symptoms for hypertension. Typically people find out they have hypertension accidentally when they visit a doctor with complaints of headache, dizziness, back pain etc.
Research shows that very rarely do people have signs of hypertension and visit a doctor to get a high blood pressure diagnosed. Evident signs of high blood pressure can appear when the condition becomes severe for an extended period of time.
Pre-hypertension is a condition in which the blood pressure (BP) is between 120/80 mmHg and 139/89 mmHg. Systolic BP ranges between 120 to 139 mmHg and the Diastolic BP ranges between 80 to 89 mmHg. Pre-hypertension should be considered as a warning sign which indicates that you may get High blood pressure in future.
Some of the conditions that contribute to pre-hypertension are:
- Atherosclerosis
- Kidney disease
- Adrenal disease
- Thyroid disease
- Medications like contraceptive pills decongestant etc.
Condition that increases the risk of pre-hypertension
- Age: Younger adults are at higher risk of prehypertension.
- Family history: If your parent or a sibling has high BP, then you are more likely to develop pre-hypertension
- Lack of physical activity: Lack of exercise can increase the risk of pre-hypertension.
- Tobacco: Smoking or chewing tobacco can increase your blood pressure.
- Alcohol: Taking more than two alcoholic drinks per day can increase your blood pressure.
Lifestyle changes that you have to bring in to avoid HyperTension.
- Right weight: Losing excess weight can reduce your blood pressure
. - Exercise: Regular exercise helps in reducing weight and lowering blood pressure.
- Diet: Foods that are high in saturated fats and Trans fats like butter, ghee, margarine, deep-fried foods, bakery products, etc. should be avoided. Eat plenty of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, low-fat dairy, fish and lean meat.
- Alcohol: Limit your drinks to not more than one or two drinks per day if you are a woman or a man respectively.
How to prevent hypertension
Since there are no reliable signs and symptoms of hypertension hence the best way to prevent hypertension is regular health checks, once you are over 40 years and keep regularly monitoring your health.
