Treating high blood pressure hypertension causes systolic diastolic age cholesterol

What is High Blood pressure (Hypertension)?

The short answer is high pressure in the arteries of the body. Doctors record 2 readings, systolic and diastolic (expressed as follows: 130/80) which represent the maximum and minimum pressure achieved with each heartbeat. We say someone’s blood pressure is high if it is 140/90 or above.  About 1/3 of adults in the UK are affected.

What causes high blood pressure?

Essential hypertension: This is the commonest form, and is caused by a complex interaction between our lifestyle and our genes.

Secondary hypertension: (Less common) where the high blood pressure is caused by disease, such as kidney disease.

The mechanisms The principal mechanism is narrowing of the arteries.
 

a) Lifestyle as a cause. This includes excess salt in the diet, being overweight, lack of exercise, alchohol excess, and to some extent stress.

b) Genetics.  Genes play a part, but with the right lifestyle you would be unlikely to develop high blood pressure.
 

What effect does high blood pressure have?

The principal effect of high blood pressure is to cause blockage of the arteries, resulting in heart attacks, strokes and related conditions.

Other factors which also affect your arteries

The harmful effects of high blood pressure can be greatly increased if other risk factors are present, notably:

Smoking
Bad diet
High blood levels of harmful forms of Cholesterol and other fats
Overweight
Diabetes
Adverse family history.

The Concept of Cardiovascular Risk (CVD)

Your individual risk of getting a heart attack or a stroke can be calculated, and this is really important. We calculate your risk of getting a heart attack or a stroke in the next 10 years; based on a number of factors including your age, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

Treating High Blood Pressure

Your 10 year cardiovascular risk (see above) affects how your doctor will treat your BP.

The lower risk patient: someone who has high blood pressure but whose 10 year risk of getting CVD is less than 20%.  We start treatment with lifestyle changes: reduce salt, lose weight, increase exercise, reduce alcohol intake, and of course stop smoking because that is a strong risk factor for heart disease and strokes.
 

Medication: If the blood pressure remains above target then we start medication; the drugs used nowadays to lower blood pressure are very safe and usually well tolerated.
 

The high risk patient: Someone who has a 10 year risk of getting CVD of 20% or more is defined as being at high risk.  People with pre existing cardiovascular disease or Type 2 Diabetes are automatically in this group.

Such patients should be treated straight away with medication if their average systolic blood pressure is above 140. They should also receive statin drugs and (in some cases) aspirin.
 

Special groups: Age , Gender, and Ethnicity

Older people: Older people benefit even more from treatment of high blood pressure than younger people do.

African descent: People of African descent living in the UK are more likely to have high blood pressure than other groups, are more likely to get strokes and kidney disease as a result, and may need different drugs.

South Asian Descent: People in this group are more prone to heart disease and diabetes, and tend to have higher cholesterol and other harmful fats in the blood.

Type 2 Diabetes: It is very important to control blood pressure in this group and we have a lower target (we aim to reduce the blood pressure to less than 130/80).
 

Women: The main point here is that they should be treated in the same way as men!   They tend to develop high blood pressure at a later age than men, but by age 70 have overtaken them