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“Hey, I feel
great Doc, why do I need to take these pills?”
This is a
question I hear all the time in my practice and to
be honest some days I feel like saying, “Well Jack
it’s like this. If you don’t take the pills you are
going to end up having a freaking stroke! OK?, So
take the damn pills!”
Of course I
don’t actually say this but I do feel like it
sometimes. The fact is that most people with high
blood pressure don’t have any symptoms at all. They
usually feel great. That is why hypertension (high
blood pressure) is often called the silent killer.
Blood
vessels obviously need to travel through all the
tissues of the body in order to supply oxygen and
nutrients and remove wastes. If the entire vascular
system is subjected to a higher pressure than it can
withstand either the blood vessels are at risk of
damage or the organ is at risk of damage. The
organs most susceptible to this type of damage are
the kidneys, the heart and the brain. Vital organs
all.
What is
high blood pressure and what do the number s mean?
According to recent guidelines normal blood pressure
is less than 120/80. Blood pressure over 140/90 is
high blood pressure or hyper tension. Blood
pressure between these values are pre-hypertension.
The top
number reported (ie 120) is the systolic pressure.
This is the pressure in the system when the heart
contracts and pumps the blood. This is the pressure
that is required in order to pump the blood thru all
your organs. If you are overweight it takes more
pressure to pump the blood thru the tissues. The
bottom number is the diastolic pressure. This is
the pressure that the vascular system is under when
the heart is at rest. This is also the pressure
that all the organs have to withstand even when the
system is at rest.
If you know
that you have high blood pressure what should you do
about it? The first thing you should do is take to
your doctor. You should avoid foods with high salt
content (more on this in future articles). You
should begin a walking program (with the ok of your
doctor). Walking for just 20 minutes a day has an
enormous impact on your blood pressure and overall
health.
I am currently research
effective ways to reduce blood pressure and hope to be
able to make some recommendations in the near
future. Please check back or sign-up for
my newsletter.
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