Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and is given as 2 numbers. The first number (systolic pressure) represents the pressure when your heart pushes blood out, whereas the second number (diastolic pressure) represents the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats.
High Blood Pressure, also called Hypertension, is a chronic disease in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. Hypertension rarely causes symptoms and people are unaware of their condition, only to discover until complications develop, thus it is considered as a "silent killer". Hypertension can damage your health in many ways, which can lead to :
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Infertility
- Kidney failure
- Blindness
- Internal bleeding
Apart from age and family history of hypertension, lifestyle habits such as high salt intake, obesity and smoking are the risk factors to predispose a person to develop hypertension. People can focus on those risk factors and change their lifestyle habits to reduce the risk of hypertension-related health problems in the future.
