Diagnosed with hypertension
Diagnosed with Hypertension.
A 24-year-old patient was diagnosed with hypertension. All his life he has been active in sports, it could be on the court playing basketball or volleyball, it could be on the field playing baseball or soccer, it could even be in the gym working out. He is not overweight, eats well, and his job keeps him on his feet the whole day. So how come a young man like him, with an above average physical activity, can be diagnosed with hypertension?
Introduction
Before we continue any further, the concept of hypertension has to be clear. So, hypertension is defined as an abnormal high blood pressure (the pressure our blood flow puts on our arterial walls). Once this force or pressure exceeds the normal numbers, we consider that; high blood pressure, and once the force decreases below the normal numbers, we consider that; low blood pressure. Before we get into the numbers, we have to understand 2 concepts of blood pressure. 1) Systolic blood pressure 2) Diastolic blood pressure.
Concepts of Blood pressure
Our heart goes through a cycle every time it beats; you have the contraction of the heart muscle that causes the expulsion of the blood flow through the arteries. And then you have the relaxation of the heart muscle, which allows the heart to reset.
Systolic Blood pressure: Systolic blood pressure is the pressure generated against the arterial wall during contraction of the heart, this is always the highest pressure, which is why it’s always the highest number.
Diastolic blood pressure: Diastolic pressure is the pressure against the arterial wall during relaxation of the heart muscle, this is always the lowest pressure, which is why it’s always the lowest number.
Now that we understand these two concepts we can talk about the numbers, in the table below you can find the latest guideline published in 2017 by the “American Heart Association”.
You have to take pills!
The first thing that you hear; is that you have to get medicated, you have to start taking pills and get your prescription. The plan was quite simple; it was time to start living a healthier lifestyle. Hypertension is a multi-systemic disease that affects every organ in your body. In simple words it means that your kidneys can fail, your heart can fail, you can have a stroke, you can go blind and these are just a few of the deadly consequences this disease brings. So naturally we should ask ourselves one simple question: “What is the most effective way to treat hypertension, and can it possibly reverse this disease?
The power of healthy living
The number one risk-factor for death worldwide is hypertension, high blood pressure is causing the death of nearly 9 million people worldwide, every year. It has such a high mortality rate because it contributes to deaths from a variety of causes, including aneurysms, heart attacks, heart failure, kidney failure and stroke.
Having this reality in mind, it helps you understand, that a lifestyle change can save your life and prevent a lot of suffering, which should make the first step towards change easier.
Did you know that, if we added certain food groups to people’s diet, we could save millions of lives?
- Eating more whole grains could potentially save 1.7 million lives a year.
- Vegetables = 1.8 million lives
- Nuts and seeds = 2.5 million lives
- Fruit = 4.9 million lives
That is nearly 5 million lives, their salvation is not medication or vaccines, just fruits.
The number one treatment for hypertension is diet and exercise; no pill can magically make your lifestyle healthier and grant you a longer life.
High blood pressure appears to be a choice. I can continue eating the artery-bursting Western diet, or I can choose to take off the pressure. The truth is that eliminating humanity’s primary risk factor for death may be simple. No drugs, no scalpels, just forks.
Conclusion
Hypertension is a serious disease, and anybody can be faced with this. As a young person it was hard for the patient to understand why he had to deal with this already, but don’t get discouraged. Because this has given us the motivation and drive that we need to finally be a better and healthier version of ourselves.