Hypertension, most commonly known as high blood pressure, is a medical condition that can affect other organs in the body and can result in a complicated illness. Hypertension happens when a person’s blood pressure goes above the normal range. Hypertension is also called as “silent killer” because a person with this illness might not feel any symptoms in his body until it is too late.
There are three general types of hypertension, these are:
- The primary hypertension – this is the type of hypertension that is not easy to identify the cause.
- The secondary hypertension – with this type of hypertension, a specific condition causes your hypertension.
- The malignant hypertension – this type of hypertension is the most serious type. This is the most serious type of hypertension because the level of the blood pressure can go up to 210/120mm Hg. You can see a lot of different symptoms in a person with this type of hypertension.
What causes hypertension? There are a variety of causes of hypertension and your lifestyle may also make it worse, these are the causes of hypertension:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- High salt consumption
- Genes
- Cigarette smoking
- Alcohol intake
For the secondary type of hypertension, these are the things that might cause it:
- Overactive adrenal glands and other problems in the endocrine system
- Hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism
- Preeclampsia
- Stress
- Sleep apnea
- Renal diseases
- Renal artery stenosis
- Age (a male in the age of 45 or a female in the age of 55 is more likely to have hypertension)
- Insulin resistance
- Caffeine
- Contraceptive pills
- Kidney diseases or kidney surgery
- Race (African American people have a greater risk of acquiring hypertension that other races )
This illness is called a “silent killer” because the symptoms are not really major symptoms and you wouldn’t think that it’s a symptom for high blood pressure. Below are the symptoms of high blood pressure that you should not take for granted:
- Severe headaches
- Always feeling dizzy
- Blurred vision or double vision
- Feeling of drowsiness
- Heart palpitations
- Nausea
- Ringing in the ear or tinnitus
- Shortness of breath
- Frequent urinating, especially during night time
- Fatigue
- Nose bleeding
- Anxiety
There are big and small symptoms of hypertension. Big symptoms might be a symptom for the most serious type of hypertension that can cause stroke. If you feel big or even small hypertension symptoms, you should immediately go and seek for an advice from a doctor.
