6 Most Typical High Blood Pressure Symptoms

High blood pressure usually comes without warning, and many people have elevated blood pressure without even knowing it. When symptoms such as blurred vision and loss of consciousness occur, they can cause damage to organs, such as heart, brain, kidney and so on. Therefore,  Hypertension is also known as the "silent killer", so everyone, especially the eight groups I wrote about in my last article, must know their blood pressure. I'll tell you more about the symptoms of hypertension, especially the early symptoms of hypertension.

The typical high blood pressure symptoms

The typical symptoms of high blood pressure mainly include headache, dizziness, dizziness, head distension, etc., and severe cases can be manifested as asthma, dyspnea, edema, visual impairment, nausea, vomiting, hemiplegia, oliguria, chest pain and other complications. However, there are not many patients with typical symptoms, many hypertension are asymptomatic, even systolic blood pressure is above 200mmHg, clinical asymptomatic or mild symptoms are not uncommon.

1. Dizzy

Dizziness is the most common high blood pressure symptoms. Some are transient, occurring when squatting or standing up suddenly, and some are persistent. Dizziness is the main pain of the patient, the head has persistent dull discomfort, serious impede thinking, affect the work, lose interest in the surrounding things, when the occurrence of hypertensive crisis or vertebrobasilar artery blood supply is insufficient, can appear and inner ear vertigo similar symptoms.

2. Headache

Headache is also a common high blood pressure symptoms, more for persistent dull pain or throbbing pain, and even a burst of sharp pain. Often occurs when waking up in the morning, get up activities and gradually reduce after meals. The pain is mostly in the temples on both sides of the forehead and the back of the head.

3. Irritability, heart palpitations and insomnia

The disposition of patients with hypertension is more irritable, sensitive and excitable. Palpitations, insomnia is more common, insomnia is more difficult to fall asleep or early wake up, sleep is not real, nightmare, easy to wake up. This is concerned with cerebral cortex function disorder and plant nerve function disorder.

4. Lack of concentration and memory

Early more not obvious, but with the development of the disease and gradually aggravated. It often becomes one of the reasons for patients to seek medical treatment because of its distressing effect, which is manifested by easy distraction of attention, recent memory loss, and often difficult to remember recent events, while memories of the past, such as childhood events, are still vivid.

5. Numbness

Common numbness of fingers, toes or skin, such as mosquito or back muscle tension, pain. Some patients often feel that the fingers are not flexible. Generally after appropriate treatment can be improved, but if the limb numbness is stubborn, lasts for a long time, and fixed in a limb, accompanied by limb weakness, cramps, jumping pain, should be timely to the hospital to see a doctor, prevent stroke.

6. Flow nosebleed

Relatively rare. Because high blood pressure can cause arteriosclerosis, make blood vessel elasticity decrease, brittleness increase, it is easy to rupture bleeding. Among them, nosebleed is more common, followed by conjunctival hemorrhage, fundus hemorrhage, cerebral hemorrhage, etc. According to statistics, in a large number of patients with nosebleed, about 80% suffer from hypertension.

Hypertension is a very common chronic disease in clinical practice, and when it comes to hypertension, it can easily lead to various adverse manifestations, and even pose a threat to health due to the continuous rise in blood pressure. The signs of hypertension should be treated as soon as possible, and blood pressure should be actively controlled in a reasonable way, otherwise it may affect normal life and even shorten one's life expectancy if it continues to soar.

If you need more information, you can also refer to the links below:

1 Centers for Disease Control and prevention

2 all photoes from pexels

8 Most common high blood pressure causes

Hypertension has been a very common disease in modern society, which is more common in middle-aged and elderly people. Hypertension is an important disease that threatens the life safety of the majority of middle-aged and elderly people. It is easy to cause a variety of dangerous complications, especially to the heart, brain, and kidney. So what are the causes of hypertension?Let's watch the video first to get a brief idea.

Through the video we know the 8 causes of hypertension, and I will elaborate on them one by one.

1. Genetics. 

Hypertension has obvious familial clustering and genetic predisposition, which is determined by at least 20-40% variation of blood pressure in the investigated population, and also belongs to the high blood pressure causes. In children with parents without hypertension, the risk was 3%; A 28% chance of having a parent with hypertension; If both parents have high blood pressure, the probability of their children having high blood pressure is 46%. When I was 11 years old, my father began to take antihypertensive drugs, and I clearly remember the scene when my father was in the hospital. And I started taking my blood pressure medication this year.

2. Gender and Age

Due to the special menstrual cycle of women, the probability of high blood pressure in women is much lower than that in men before menopause, but after menopause, the incidence rate will rise rapidly and even far exceed that in men.

3. High salt. 

A diet high in sodium and low in potassium is an high blood pressure causes. The World Health Organization recommends 5 grams of sodium per day for the average person. Many countries and regions far exceed this standard due to living habits and personal tastes. A high sodium diet is the cause of high blood pressure, and low potassium, low calcium, low animal protein diet is exacerbated by high sodium on blood pressure has a very adverse effect. 

I have also written a detailed article about high salt causing high blood pressure, you can also read it if you are interested.

4. Bad living habits. 

Poor living habits and eating habits may cause high blood pressure, especially diet has an important impact on hypertension, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Excessive salt intake, large amounts of alcohol, smoking, and fat intake can all cause high blood pressure. Other studies have shown that people who often stay up late are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and even have a stroke while keeping a well-organized life and getting into the habit of going to bed early can minimize the risk of high blood pressure.

5. Overweight and obese. 

There was a clear correlation between arterial blood pressure and relative weight in both hypertensive and normal blood pressure groups, as well as adults and adolescents, and the higher the body weight, the greater the risk of high blood pressure. This is one of the more common causes of high blood pressure. Control your diet, exercise, and stay away from fat.

The relationship between overweight and hypertension is described in detail in another article.

6. Work and life pressure. 

With the continuous development of society, more and more competitive pressure, coupled with rising prices and housing prices, lead to more and more pressure in people's lives, it is easy to cause a series of changes in the human body, resulting in increased secretion of catecholamines in the body, they will cause the contraction of blood vessels, increased heart load, cause hypertension. Adjust a good state of mind, more outdoor exercise, is a good way to decompress.

7. Personality type.

Personality also has a close relationship with the occurrence of hypertension, temperament irritable people are more prone to hypertension. For example, hormones that cause blood vessels to constrict are secreted when people are angry or irritable, and blood vessel constrict causes blood pressure to rise.

8. Drink alcohol. 

Small amounts of alcohol do not harm blood pressure. However, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were associated with daily alcohol consumption. Compared with abstainers, men who drank consistently had a 40 percent increased risk of high blood pressure over four years. This is the main high blood pressure causes

The above content is the etiology of hypertension I sorted out for you, I hope it can help you. At the same time, once again remind patients with hypertension in peacetime must pay attention to their blood pressure nursing work. Let health always accompany you.

You can also get more information at the links below:

1 Centers for Disease control prevention

2 All images are from Pexels

What is high blood pressure

 1 minute to understand what is High Blood Pressure 

Through the video we have a preliminary understanding of hypertension, the next in several parts we will learn more about high blood pressure.

1. Definition of High Blood Pressure

Hypertension is a clinical syndrome characterized primarily by increased arterial blood pressure (systolic and/or diastolic) in the body circulation (systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg), which may be accompanied by functional or organic damage to the heart, brain, kidneys, and other organs.

2. High blood pressure damage

1 Causes cardiac hypertrophy.

• A continued increase in blood pressure will lead to greater resistance when the heart pumps blood outward, and the heart will work under high pressure for a long time will lead to myocardial hypertrophy and a decrease in myocardial contractility, which will lead to heart failure.

2 Damage to blood vessels.

• The human blood vessel wall should be smooth, if long-term hypertension, will lead to thickening of the vessel wall, causing great damage to the vessel wall, so that it is easy to suffer from various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

3 Damage to the brain.

• High blood pressure can damage the human brain, resulting in a decline in brain function, making it impossible for people to carry out normal activities. It can also lead to ischemic stroke due to narrowing of the brain arteries, which can seriously threaten a person's life.

4 Damage to the eyes.

• High blood pressure can also cause great damage to the eyes. Long-term hypertension can lead to spasms and sclerosis of the retinal arteries, which can lead to vision loss and even blindness in severe cases.

5 Causes damage to kidney function.

• The kidneys and human blood pressure have a close relationship, long-term hypertension will cause great damage to the kidneys, resulting in renal hypertension, which will also lead to kidney failure.

6 Causes peripheral artery disease.

• Elevated blood pressure can cause the arteries of the lower extremities to undergo coronary artery sclerosis at a faster rate, thus making the arteries of the lower extremities ischemic and lack nutrients or even necrosis.

3. Causes of High blood pressure 

•  Genetic factors  Approximately 60% of patients with hypertension have a family history. It is now believed to be due to polygenic inheritance, with 30% to 50% of patients with hypertension having a genetic background.
•  ntal and environmental factors  Long-term mental tension, excitement, anxiety, exposure to noise or bad visual stimulation，and other factors can also cause the occurrence of hypertension.
•  Age factors  The incidence of hypertension tends to increase with age, with a high incidence in people over 40 years old.
•  Lifestyle factors  Irrational dietary structure, such as exces sodium, low potassium diet, heavy alcohol consumption, excessive intake of saturated fatty acids can increase blood pressure. Smoking can accelerate the process of atherosclerosis, which is a risk factor for hypertension.
•  The influence of drugs  Contraceptives, hormones, anti-inflammatory，and painkillers, etc. can affect blood pressure.
• The influence of other diseases  Obesity, diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome, thyroid disease, renal artery stenosis, renal parenchymal damage, adrenal occupational lesions, pheochromocytoma, other neuroendocrine tumors, etc.

4. Classification of High blood pressure

High blood pressure can be divided into two categories.

1. primary hypertension

It is an independent disease with elevated blood pressure as the main clinical manifestation but the cause is not yet clear, accounting for more than 90% of all hypertensive patients.

2. Secondary hypertension

Also known as symptomatic hypertension, in this type of disease the cause is clear, hypertension is only one of the clinical manifestations of the disease, blood pressure can be temporarily or persistently elevated.

5. High blood pressure symptoms

• The symptoms of hypertension vary from person to person. 
• In the early stage, there may be no or insignificant symptoms, commonly dizziness, headache, tight neck plate, fatigue, palpitations, etc. 
• An increase in blood pressure will occur only after exertion, mental stress, or mood swings and will return to normal after rest. As the course of the disease lengthens, the blood pressure rises significantly and continuously, and various symptoms will gradually appear, it is called bradykinetic hypertension. 
• The common clinical symptoms of bradykinetic hypertension include headache, dizziness, lack of concentration, memory loss, numbness in the limbs, increased nocturia, palpitations, chest tightness, and weakness. 
• The symptoms of hypertension are related to the blood pressure level. 
• Most of the symptoms can be aggravated after stress or exertion, and blood pressure can rise rapidly after early morning activities, resulting in early morning hypertension, leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events occurring mostly in the early morning.

When blood pressure suddenly rises to a certain level even severe headache, vomiting, palpitations, vertigo, and other symptoms will occur, and in serious cases, confusion and convulsions will occur, which is the acute type of hypertension and hypertensive critical illness, and will mostly occur in a short period, serious damage and lesions of the heart, brain, kidneys and other organs, such as stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, etc. There is no consistent relationship between the symptoms and the level of elevated blood pressure.

The clinical manifestation of secondary hypertension is mainly about the signs and symptoms of the primary disease, and hypertension is only one of its symptoms. The elevation of blood pressure in patients with secondary hypertension may have its characteristics, such as hypertension due to aortic constriction may be limited to the upper extremities; the increase of blood pressure due to pheochromocytoma is paroxysmal.

6. What  tests should be done after the diagnosis of hypertension？

• The basic tests that need to be done after the diagnosis of hypertension include routine blood, urine, biochemistry, electrocardiogram, and chest X-ray. 

• If there is heart damage from hypertension, echocardiography and coronary angiography are needed. 

• With neurological damage, a cerebral angiogram, CT, or MRI of the brain is needed to check for brain bleeding or brain infarction.

• If you have hypertensive nephropathy, you need to have a kidney ultrasound, and 24-hour urine protein quantification or kidney function test to see what level of damage to the kidneys is caused by hypertension. 

• Because of the long-term high tension pressure, many patients will develop hypertensive macrovascular lesions in the advanced stage of hypertension and need to have an arteriovenous ultrasound. 

• When blood pressure is high, it can also damage the eyes, so a fundus examination is needed to check the condition of the retina. 

• When hypertension is diagnosed, in addition to understanding target organ damage, it is also necessary to know if there are any specific causes of hypertension, which requires adrenal CT, adrenal hormones, renal arteriography, respiratory sleep monitoring, and genetic testing to understand if hypertension is caused by specific causes.

You can also find more information at the links below:

1 jacc.org
2 nhlbi.nih.gov
3 all photoes from pexels