Every hypertensive person should know his maneuver
Myths about hypertension
Alexey Utin, Health Magazine No. 10-2015
Hypertension is an insidious disease. It doesn't seem to hurt anything, but it can shorten life by 10-20 years. And menopausal women are at risk. Why and what to do about it?
Quiet, quietHeadache, increased irritability, nausea bother most hypertensive patients only at the initial stages of the disease.
Further "bad" happens only during hypertensive crises. And since nothing hurts, they don't pay attention to hypertension. But in vain. The main cause of death in the world is cardiovascular diseases. According to the American Heart Disease Association, they are more likely to die from them than from cancer, Alzheimer's and accidents combined. And hypertension, in turn, provokes these diseases. According to recent studies, hypertensive patients are 3-4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease, and strokes occur 7 times more often than those whose blood pressure is normal. The fact is that increased pressure injures the vascular wall, cholesterol begins to be deposited in it. This leads to rapid aging of blood vessels, and, consequently, early heart attacks and strokes. From the point of view of biological age, hypertensive patients are older than their peers with normal and even lower blood pressure. It is not for nothing that hypertension is called a "silent killer".
The 40% rule40% of hypertensive patients know about their disease. Of these, 40% take medications. 40% of those who take medications take them correctly and in the right doses. That is, only 6.4% of hypertensive patients receive adequate therapy!
A word about genderEvery year there are more and more hypertensive patients.
And, interestingly, until recently it was believed that gender does not matter much in the development of hypertension. Moreover, up to 80% of participants in hypertension research are men. However, it turns out that there are still differences. And a woman's life in terms of the risks of hypertension is clearly divided into 2 stages. The first is before menopause. During this period, female hormones reliably protect the heart and blood vessels, so the chances of getting sick in women are generally lower than in men (provided that there is no metabolic syndrome). The second stage is menopause. At this time, in a matter of months, due to a decrease in estrogen production and an increase in androgens in the blood, gender advantages are lost. Moreover, by the age of 59, there are even more hypertensive women than men. By the way, it is estimated that by 2025, 793 million women in the world will suffer from hypertension. Very often during menopause, high blood pressure is combined with overweight and prediabetes. This condition is called menopausal metabolic syndrome. It further increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Who is to blameHypertension, or arterial hypertension, is an increase in pressure from 139/89 mm Hg and above, registered at least twice in a patient at rest.
In 95% of cases, it is essential hypertension, or, as it is called in our country, hypertension. It is impossible to name a clear cause of the disease, usually there is a whole complex of reasons related to heredity, lifestyle, bad habits, hormonal changes and constitution.
In 5% of cases, the cause can be identified and (often, but not always) eliminated. These hypertension are called symptomatic. The main organ involved in pressure regulation is the kidney. Problems with the vessels of the kidneys, the kidneys themselves or the adrenal glands are the main cause of symptomatic hypertension. Also, the disease can cause changes in the thyroid gland, congenital and acquired abnormalities of blood vessels and the heart. Ideally, the diagnosis of "hypertension" should be made only after the exclusion of all symptomatic hypertension. However, if your relatives have been diagnosed with hypertension, you are over 30, there are no kidney problems, there are no sudden pressure rises, most likely you have hypertension. To appoint or not to appoint additional examinations in this case, the doctor decides.
Degrees of hypertension:I degree: 140-159/90-99 mmHg.II degree 160-179/100-109 mmHg.III degree >180/110 mmHg.
People in white coatsFalse positive results occur with hypertension of the "white coat".
When you see a doctor, the subconscious remembers how, as a child, a person dressed in this way gave you a very painful injection in the ass. This is stressful for you and the pressure naturally increases. Come home, take your blood pressure, and it's completely normal. In this case, the solution is daily monitoring of blood pressure. A device is attached to the body, which measures the pressure every 20-40 minutes during the day. This is the "gold standard" of hypertension diagnosis.
Myths about hypertensionWith hypertension, the head hurts.
- The head hurts in the same percentage of cases in people with normal, high and low blood pressure. Most often, headaches are not associated with pressure. Most often, oddly enough, they are provoked by diseases of the cervical spine. Most people, even with a systolic pressure over 200, do not have a headache. The only way to determine blood pressure is to measure it at least occasionally.The pressure needs to be monitored very carefully.
- The other extreme is excessive attention to pressure indicators. It is usually not necessary to measure the pressure more than 3 times a day. Moreover, this should be done in a state of physical and emotional peace, after sitting quietly for 10 minutes before measuring, in a warm room. There is no point in measuring blood pressure immediately after training in the gym, or when you are nervous, drank coffee or smoked – any person's blood pressure indicators increase in these situations. If a person begins to measure blood pressure every hour or more often, it is more likely to lead to neurosis than to help cope with hypertension.Electronic blood pressure monitors lie.
- Such a conclusion can be made if the pressure is measured with an electronic tonometer several times in a row. We will get indicators that differ by 5-10 mm Hg. s. But the point here is that the device is quite accurate and captures the slightest fluctuations in blood pressure. You just need to measure the pressure 3 times in a row with an interval of 2 minutes and calculate the average. The readings of tonometers worn on the forearm may be inaccurate. Or if the width of the shoulder cuff does not match the circumference of the shoulder.The pressure needs to be brought down.
- The use of short-acting antihypertensive drugs, for a quick but short-term decrease in pressure, leads to a "swing effect" when blood pressure jumps up and down during the day. Such therapy does not reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.If the pressure is normal, you do not need to drink the medicine.
- Normal blood pressure is maintained by a certain concentration of the drug in the blood. Therefore, the drug prescribed by a doctor should be taken constantly, even if the pressure is normal or low. Low blood pressure, by the way, is not a reason to cancel the drug yourself, you need to consult a doctor to correct the dose.As soon as the pressure returns to normal, the well-being will improve.
- If a hypertensive person has lived with high blood pressure for many years, then lowering the pressure to normal figures can lead to dizziness, weakness and drowsiness. This is due to the fact that the vascular system has adapted to high pressure, and normal is not enough for "good" health. This, by the way, is the most common reason for refusing therapy. It should be borne in mind that the body needs 2-3 weeks to adapt to a new mode of work. Sometimes, if the pressure is too high, it is reduced in several stages. At first, up to 140 by 90, after a few weeks, when a person gets used to it a little, up to 120 by 80.If the doctor prescribed the drug, and it does not help, you need to look for another doctor.
- Given the individual characteristics of the body, the reaction to the same drug in different people can be completely different. Therefore, drugs and dosage are usually selected 2-3 times. The patient is prescribed a drug, he takes it and simultaneously keeps a diary "pressure, pulse, well-being". After 2 weeks, a second consultation is usually prescribed, to adjust the dose, if necessary, or to connect drugs from another group.I drank the course – and I'm healthy.
- There are no courses in the treatment of hypertension. This is a chronic disease, which is most often based on a genetic defect in the regulation of salt excretion from the body. Each molecule of sodium chloride retains at least 10 molecules of water in the body, the volume of circulating blood increases, which leads to an increase in pressure. It seems to our body that the pressure of 160 to 90 is "normal" for it. To convince him, you need to constantly take medications. If you stop doing this, the pressure will rise again. Accordingly, the risk of heart attacks and strokes will increase dramatically, and life expectancy will decrease.There is a "working pressure", and it can be higher than normal.
- According to the Framingham study, at a pressure of 130-139 by 85-89 (considered normal elevated pressure), the risk of cardiovascular diseases increases by 2 times. There is no "working" pressure. This term appeared due to confusion in cause-and-effect relationships. Many people believe that if a head often hurts at a pressure of 130 to 85, then it is hypertension, that is, "high pressure". And if someone has a pressure of 160 over 100 and nothing hurts, then this is such a "working pressure". Only in the first case, a person does not have hypertension, and he will live for a hundred years. But the second case is a real hypertension, with all the ensuing consequences.The lower one is renal.
- There is a strong belief that an increase in lower, diastolic pressure is associated with the kidneys, or rather with kidney diseases. From where? - here I'm at a loss for guesses. Let's figure out what is systolic (upper) and what is diastolic (lower pressure). If you connect the pump to an inflated bicycle chamber and imagine that the pump is the heart and the chamber is the vessels, then the pressure in the chamber, which will be at the time of pumping by the pump, will be systolic. And diastolic pressure is the pressure with which air presses on the walls of the chamber (blood presses on the walls of blood vessels) while the pump is not working. The level of diastolic pressure will depend on the elasticity of the chamber walls. As a rule, diastolic pressure increases more in overweight people and people who lead a sedentary lifestyleIf hypertension is a hereditary disease, then the pressure should be increased at a young age, and not only after 40.
- Up to a certain age, the genetic defect in the regulation of the excretion of sodium chloride from the body can be compensated for by other regulatory systems. But these systems can fail, especially if a person leads an unhealthy lifestyle, is nervous a lot, does not monitor weight, eats too much salt.If you lead a healthy lifestyle and lose weight, you can get rid of hypertension without pills.
- Lifestyle changes are the basis of antihypertensive therapy. It is worth giving up salt, taking 10-15 thousand steps daily, monitoring the waist size (less than 102 cm for men and 88 cm for women), quitting smoking and stopping abusing alcohol. However, in isolation, without the connection of tablets, all this will help only at the earliest stage of the disease. In other cases, antihypertensive therapy must be prescribed immediately.In numbers:
An increase in systolic pressure by 1 mmHg by 3.3% increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.Losing only 5% of weight helps to significantly reduce blood pressure.Each additional gram of sodium chloride increases the pressure by 5 mm Hg.Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
20.11.2015