Your Health
By Shirley Learthart
Stop the Silent Killer!
The Bad News...
Often called the silent killer, high blood pressure can quietly damage your body for years before symptoms develop. Left undiagnosed and uncontrolled, you may wind up with a disability, a poor quality of life or even a fatal heart attack or stroke. Complications of high blood pressure, if left uncontrolled, include:
- Damage to your arteries, a cascade of events causing hardening of the arteries which can decrease blood flow to your heart, kidneys, brain and extremities.
- Aneurysms (a bulge in a weak section of artery) which can rupture and be life threatening.
- Dementia. Vascular dementia can result from extensive narrowing and blockage of arteries that supply blood to the brain. High blood pressure that occurs even as early as middle age can increase the risk of dementia in later years.
- Kidney failure. High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of kidney failure.
- Damage to your eyes. Tiny blood vessels supply blood to your eyes, they are very vulnerable to the damage of high blood pressure.
- Damage to your heart. High blood pressure can cause damage to the heart including coronary heart disease and heart failure.
- Increased risk of stroke. Caused by damaging and weakening of your brain’s blood vessels.
- Sexual dysfunction. Inability to maintain an erection is more likely to occur in men if they have high blood pressure.
- Bone loss. High blood pressure can increase the amount of calcium that’s eliminated in the urine, leading to loss of bone density (osteoporosis).
The Good News...
There are many ways of preventing high blood pressure and by having your blood pressure checked annually, if a problem arises, it can be rectified quickly before any damage has been done. High blood pressure is only a problem if it is ignored. There are many natural ways to lower your blood pressure if it is found to be high. Next month we will discuss natural ways of lowering blood pressure.
Shirley
For more preventative health information,
you can visit my website at:
www.vitalsigns-health.co.uk |
