You may be familiar with high blood pressure’s “silent killer” moniker. But you may not be aware of all the ways high blood pressure can diminish your health.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can boost your heart disease risk, heart attack, and stroke. But did you know it can also damage your brain, arteries, kidneys, and more?
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Uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause significant damage to your body. It can lead to disability, low quality of life, or worse. Some of its effects include:
- Damaged and narrow arteries: High blood pressure can damage cells in the inner lining of your arteries.
- Aneurysm risk
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart failure
- Enlarged heart
- Stoke
- Dementia
- Mild cognitive impairment
- Kidney scarring
- Kidney failure
- Retina damage (retinopathy)
- Optic nerve damage
- Sexual dysfunction
As you can see, high blood pressure can have a much more considerable influence on your life than just heart health. Heart health may be the most important in terms of life and death, but these other potential maladies have a massive impact on life quality.
This is why managing high blood pressure is so important. Finding ways to lower blood pressure can lead to a lower risk of a heart attack and potentially add a significant boost to overall health and your ability to enjoy life.
You have the power to lower blood pressure. Lifestyle habits can play a significant role in blood pressure and can be implemented throughout the day to encourage long term health.
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These factors include increasing activity, eating less sugar, consuming more fruits and vegetables, and getting yourself down to a healthy weight.
It’s important to look at these efforts as a marathon, not a sprint. Keeping blood pressure in check is the long-term goal, thus diminishing the abuse it causes on your body.
It doesn’t mean you necessarily have to give up some of your guilty pleasures. With a long-term approach, there is some wiggle room for lifestyle because doing the right thing most of the time should lead to better long-term outcomes.
Mohan Garikiparithi got his degree in medicine from Osmania University (University of Health Sciences). He practiced clinical medicine for over a decade before he shifted his focus to the field of health communications. During his active practice he served as the head of the Dept. of Microbiology in a diagnostic centre in India. On a three-year communications program in Germany, Mohan developed a keen interest in German Medicine (Homoeopathy), and other alternative systems of medicine. He now advocates treating different medical conditions without the use of traditional drugs. An ardent squash player, Mohan believes in the importance of fitness and wellness.
