Consequences Of Hypertension On The Organism
The hypertensives' hearts are much more solicited than those of healthy people, because they are forced to handle more pressure and a larger quantity of blood than normal. These over-solicited hearts are, in time, at increased risk of developing one of the following conditions:
- * Congestive heart failure, generated by the incapacity of the heart to supply the body with the necessary amount of blood, over-solicited, the heart gets weaker and weaker. A consequence is fluid retention inside the legs and many other parts.
- * Coronary heart disease consists in cholesterol and fat deposits over the blood vessels. These deposits narrow the arteries. The consequences of this condition are angina, caused by a too little oxygen supply to the heart , which takes the form of chest pain and heart attack.
- * Left ventricular hypertrophy occurs with the thickening of the heart main chambers' walls, generated by the over-soliciting of the heart. Because this generates abnormalities of the heart's function, the risks are much higher.
Oxygenated blood is constantly needed by both the heart and the brain, which makes hypertension one of the main factors of risk that generate a stroke.
The consequences of a stroke may be temporary or permanent. A temporary damage caused by such "brain attack" is known as a transient ischemic attack.
Besides the above-mentioned, there are also severe complications of hypertension, generated by the damage produced on other organs, such as:
- * Hypertension may affect the eyes, causing retina disorders, generated by the damaged blood vessels
- * Hypertension generates about 33% of the kidney failure cases
- * Hypertension seriously affects the brain in old people, generating problems like losing the mental function, Alzheimer disease, dementia etc.
- * Another complication of hypertension may result in sexual dysfunctions for both men and woman; these include the alteration of the sexual function by same lowering blood pressure medicines. 17% of men experienced dysfunctions, while in women vaginal dryness is very common.
- * In proper blood circulation to the legs and feet generated by hypertension cases peripheral vascular disease. Numbness, leg pain, loss of leg hair, difficulty to walk and open sores occur with this disease.
- * The difficulty to retain calcium due to the high blood pressure seriously damages the bones; as a consequence, osteoporosis occurs.
There are factors of risk beyond our control, such as age, or the genetic factor. What we can do is to change our lifestyle, by giving up tobacco, control weight and a healthy alimentation.