What is hypertension?

Hypertension is the medical term used for high blood pressure. In the medical lexicon, hypertension is referred to as arterial hypertension. Technically, it is when systolic blood pressure shoots above 120mm Hg. This is the pressure when the heart beats. You are suffering from hypertension also when the diastolic blood pressure constantly hovers above 80mm Hg. This is the pressure of the blood vessels when the heart is at rest.

Causes

Today, we live a very hectic life. This means that we overindulge, take a lot of stress and involve ourselves in delinquent pursuits like nicotine and alcohol. If one does not have a genetic disorder or rheumatism of the cardiac muscles, then hypertension is attributable to these three sins; overindulgence, stress and nicotine.

They raise the levels of bad cholesterol in our blood. This clogs the arterial walls and increases the blood viscosity. This pushes the blood in the blood vessel with higher pressure thus increasing the risk of cardiac arrest. Similarly, higher stress levels add to the gradient of hymocysteine in blood. This causes lapse of cardiac strength and with time it can cause quite catastrophic results.