High blood pressure and Heart attack

Arteriosclerosis or Hardening of Arteries is
The Common Factor

Hardening of arteries is central to both high blood pressure and heart attack. Obesity /overweight, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity and stress are the common factors that contribute to atherosclerosis and increase the risk of both - hypertension and heart attacks.

Being overweight, diabetic, smoking and chronic stress are root causes for high blood cholesterol and triglycerides. Extra blood cholesterol and triglyceride deposit in the arteries (tubes that supply blood to whole body including heart muscles). These deposition known as plaques and cause narrowing of arteries and makes them hard.

How Hard Arteries Increase The Risk Of
High Blood Pressure and Heart Attack?

Atherosclerosis or hardening of arteries is like increased resistance against which heart has to pump the blood to meet the body requirements. Heart has to work harder to fulfill its obligation. As a coping process heart muscles enlarge in size – technically known as Left Ventricular Hypertrophy or LVH.

More blood is needed to nourish enlarged heart muscles. But, as we saw above cholesterol and triglyceride deposition in arteries supplying to the heart muscles (coronary arteries) makes them narrow. So there are two things happening. One - Heart muscle size has increased. Two – Coronary arteries have become narrowed and hard. As a result for a larger heart muscle there is decreased blood supply. This is the background of Hypertensive Ischemic Heart Disease.

If you paid attention to the common factors of both high blood pressure and heart attack – you have noticed that being overweight, stress and smoking are the manifestations of behavioral choices. The wrong dietary choices and consumption of more calories, smoking and drinking and living physically inactive – a sedentary - and stressful lifestyle all of these make the perfect recipe for all – coronary heart disease, heart attack, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity. All these feed each other and increase risk from bad to worse.

The way out of this vicious circle is to take charge of your life and make necessary changes in lifestyle before it is too late.

Genes Play A Part

Role of genes can not be denied. But genes play a villain in quite small number of people. For most it is lifestyle that is behind high blood pressure and heart disease. Parents transfer to their children not only genes but also lifestyle. It is impossible to make the scientific evaluation of pure genetic involvement divorced from inherited lifestyle.

Even if you have bad genes – you can turn the table around by living a healthy lifestyle.

Medication for Hypertension

If you are found to be suffering from high blood pressure and or other risk factors like high cholesterol, diabetes and being overweight – your physician will put you on some medication along with some lifestyle recommendation. You MUST take the medication as prescribed along with making the right changes in your choice of quality and quantity of food, smoking, physical exercise etc.

With the wise changes – it is more than likely – that your dependence on medication will diminish significantly. Keep in regular touch with your physician so that you are not overmedicated when your blood pressure drops towards normal with your proactive choices.

In most cases medicine doesn’t know the real causes behind high blood pressure. Then, it is known as primary or idiopathic hypertension. Ignorant about its source, medicine is directed only at lowering blood pressure on daily basis by acting at peripheral mechanisms. You can understand that medication offers only a partial and unsatisfactory approach for treating hypertension.

In rare instances, a curative cause is detected behind hypertension. This class of high blood pressure (HBP) is called ‘Secondary Hypertension’. For example – an artery supplying blood to kidney is narrow. This is known as Renal Artery Stenosis. A surgical correction can correct both narrowing of artery and high blood pressure. Some endocrinal causes are also categorized in this group – example – pheochromocytoma.

But these examples are very rare when a curative medicinal response can be expected. In most hypertensive patients medicine offers much less then needed to handle one of the most important risk factor of Number one killer of our age – atherosclerotic coronary heart disease.

Lifestyle Modification Offers
The Best Chance To Reverse
High Blood Pressure and Heart Attack.

If you are suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease – your best choice is to revolutionize your lifestyle. In contrast to drugs – that are expensive and loaded with side effects, sometimes very serious – life style modification provide long lasting improvement. Changing your lifestyle is inexpensive and its only side effects are increased energy, improved efficiency and happiness. Only positive side effects.

You may like to visit this page for total lifestyle prescription to reverse both high blood pressure and heart disease.

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