High Blood Pressure - What Causes It?

High blood pressure (hypertension) is often referred to as the silent killer because it rarely exhibits any symptoms until the damage is already done. The most common experience of finding out one has hypertension is to hear it from your doctor during a routine physical.

Your doctor (or most often, nurse) will check your blood pressure as a standard preliminary procedure to your physical. Usually before you are even assigned to an examination room. There is a condition known as White Coat Syndrome in which a person's blood pressure actually increases dramatically as a direct response to visiting the doctor. I react just that way myself, often leading my doctors and their nurses to try to send me to the emergency room when they see my normally high blood pressure become extremely high blood pressure once the cuff is strapped on me in the doctor's office. My solution to this was to buy a home digital blood pressure monitor. They are relatively cheap, and are very accurate. Don't use it to replace the doctor though.

Hypertension is a major causative factor in strokes and coronary heart disease. It is important that everyone get checked frequently. While some people are at more risk of developing high blood pressure (e.g. people who are fat or have a family history), the sad truth is that 90% or more of cases have unknown causes. For this reason, there is no simple answer to the question of what causes high blood pressure and there is no simple solution to the problem.

Normally, blood pressure is naturally controlled by a person's body, keeping it within very strict limits. If blood pressure drops, the body contracts the arteries, decreasing the size of the blood's pathway, thus increasing the resistance encountered by the blood trying to push its way through. Blood pressure increases. If blood pressure becomes too high, the body will reverse this process. In people with long term hypertension, this process does not function correctly for some reason and must be managed by diet and drugs.

Some of the factors which are thought to cause high blood pressure include the following:

* Excessive alcohol

* Smoking

* Obesity

* Excess sodium in the diet

* Excessive Stress

* Excessive Caffeine

* Genetic factors

Obviously most of these factors are within our individual control. Therefore we can make great strides towards lowering blood pressure by natural means. Following a healthy diet with increased fruit and vegetable intake and lower fat intake, while at the same cutting out those bad habits we know are harmful to our health usually help to lower blood pressure. If you are overweight, losing a few pounds will make a tremendous difference. Action as simple as walking for 30 minutes, 3 times a week can have beneficial effects on your blood pressure. The DASH diet has been clinically proven to lower blood pressure. Of course, as with all things medical, please consult your doctor before starting any exercise program or drastically changing your diet.