High Blood Pressure Causes – What Causes High Blood Pressure?

Factors causing High Blood Pressure:

When your heart pumps blood into the rest of the body via blood vessels called the arteries, a pressure is build up on the walls of the artery by the rush of the blood. This pressure is known as systolic blood pressure. Similarly when the heart relaxes after the consecutive contraction, the pressure created is known as the diastolic blood pressure. Blood pressure, in general, is the product of the pressure exerted by the blood against the walls of the arteries times the resistance in the blood vessels. Blood pressure is denoted as the reading of these two types of pressures represented by a ratio. High Blood Pressure is nothing but the abnormal increase in the pressure readings than the normal. The condition is also known as hypertension.
The most basic reason for the unusual rise in the blood pressure is due to the narrowing of the blood vessel diameter thus exerting extra pressure while pumping blood in and out of it. Although in the initial stages high blood pressure may not show any symptoms, it can still cause serious long-term complications. These complications include severe conditions of heart disease, heart attack, congestive heart failure, kidney failure, peripheral artery disease and aortic aneurysms.

• Patients in whom the cause of high blood pressure is not specified to one particular factor they are known to have primary hypertension. However, in the vast majority of people with this condition, it is observed that there is an increase in the resistance due to higher stiffness in the peripheral arteries.
• These peripheral arteries that have developed high resistance may have been caused by two sub factors which include 1.) Genetic factors : Hypertension is often hereditary and is passed down the family through generations  2.) Environmental factors: Substantial increase in salt consumption, obesity, lack of physical activity and so on are considered responsible for primary hypertension.
• In about 10% of people high blood pressure cause is detected to be of a specific nature and thus this condition is termed as secondary hypertension. In such cases, where the root cause is detected, it can be easily cured and hypertension can be eliminated altogether.
• Secondary hypertension are caused due to a variety of factors such as, chronic kidney diseases, tumors or other diseases of the adrenal gland, narrowing of the aorta due to fat deposition on the inner side of its walls-a condition known as Coarctation of the aorta, pregnancy, use of birth control pills, alcoholism, abnormal function of the thyroid hormone.
• There are other factors that are generally the ones you cannot do much about. They are to be accepted as it is. Age is one such factor wherein the older you grow, your arteries have a natural tendency to get stiffer. This is due to hardening of the arteries thus causing hypertension.
• Occasionally, it depends on race of the population where the majority of African Americans develop hypertension as compared to the whites.
• It is also seen in population belonging to lower socioeconomic strata of the society due to improper and unhealthy diet and food habits practiced.
• Additionally, hypertension is gender dependent where men have higher probabbility of developing high blood pressure than women.
• Certain factors that can be changed thus correcting the high blood pressure levels are obesity, sodium sensitivity, alcohol addiction, use of oral contraceptives, lack of physical exercise and certain drugs like amphetamines (stimulants), diet pills and certain pills used for cold and allergy symptoms.

Prevention is better than cure. Thus it is essential to bring about necessary lifestyle changes to lead a healthy living.