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September 28th, 2005 | Issue 32 |
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Hypertension: Symptoms, Treatment and Results
What is hypertension? Is it the same as high blood pressure?
To understand hypertension (also known as high blood pressure), it is important to understand the heart. The heart is a pump. It pumps blood through our arteries, sending nourishment to all parts of our body. A pump works by generating pressure. But too much pressure is a problem. Too much force pushing against arterial walls, called hypertension, can strain the arteries and the heart itself.
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HYPERTENSION RESOURCES
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Why is hypertension a problem?
The higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk of stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, and even, new research has found, dementia. Hypertension contributes to heart attacks and strokes by damaging the inner walls of the arteries and by speeding up the inflammatory process. Hypertension is the #1 risk factor for strokes.
How did you get hypertension?
It’s easy to get hypertension if you live in the United States and other affluent countries, like England, where most citizens eat diets high in salt and fat and low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. An American’s lifetime risk of developing hypertension is close to 90%, reported the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2004.
At least 65 million adult Americans – up from 50 million just 10 years ago – have the disease, and nearly one-third don’t even know it. And kids, heavier than ever, are being diagnosed with soaring blood pressure like never before.
What are the symptoms?
That’s part of the problem. Hypertension usually causes no symptoms, so over time, damage to your arteries, heart, and brain can
Is hypertension inevitable? A natural part of aging?
For years, that’s what we thought. Physicians were taught in medical school that blood pressure normally increases with age.
But in recent years anthropologists have found a wide variety of primitive people who consumed diets with little or no added salt and whose blood pressure did not rise with age. They included Eskimos, the Masai of Africa, New Guinea Highlanders, and African Bushman. Among these populations, hypertension was virtually unknown. Scientists observed that the only time blood pressure rose with age was when people from these normally hypertension-free populations abandoned their traditional diets and starting eating modern diets dense with calories and full of highly salted foods.
Won’t pills cure the problem?
Not really. Keep in mind that hypertension increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular-related disease, like heart attacks and strokes, by 300% and more. Diuretics – considered by many scientists to be the best drug treatment for most hypertensives – decreases your risk of dying by only 19%.
Pills, in short, have hardly solved the problem. Even if you’re taking pills, your risk of ...
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Copyright 2005 Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa. All rights reserved.
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Pritikin Perspective - Healthy Living Made Easier
Pritikin Perspective is a publication for Alumni of the Pritikin Longevity Center. It is dedicated to helping people make healthy changes in their lives. The articles in this publication should not be considered specific medical advice, as each individual circumstance is different. You are strongly encouraged to seek medical advice before beginning a program of diet and exercise.
Editor/Writer: Eugenia Killoran.
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