Why should you keep your blood pressure within the normal range? – By Dr harold Gunatillake
Website: www.Doctorharold.com
When you visit your GP, whilst talking to you, the first thing he does is check your blood pressure. That reveals how important it is for managing your health and wellbeing.
The force of blood pressure is generated with each heartbeat as blood is pumped from the heart into the blood vessels. The size and elasticity of the artery walls also affect blood pressure. Each time the heart beats (contracts and relaxes), pressure is created inside the arteries.
Through healthy living with a plant-based diet, daily exercise, and fish oil supplements, you could keep the blood vessels elastic and expandable, resulting in less forceful action of heart left ventricular contractions, resulting in lower blood pressure, naturally.
That is an essential health tip to keep your blood pressure within the normal range. Unhealthy lifestyles, eating processed foods with added salt, and lack of exercise can result in thickened arteries, a gradual process resulting in high blood pressure. This process is called atherosclerosis resulting in plaque formation, and such narrowing of the blood vessels can strain your heart.
Your arteries should be sturdy, springy, and smooth to move blood easily from your heart and lungs to your organs and other tissues.
High blood pressure pushes too hard on your artery walls. This damages the insidethe inner lining of your blood vessels, and causes fat, or “plaque,” to collect. That plaque makes your arteries stiff and narrow, so they can’t do their job either. Feel your radial pulse with two fingers and roll the artery, and you can fairly judge the situation of your coronary arteries.
If your radial artery at the wrist is thickened, you can be sure it would be the same in your coronary arteries.
The simplest way to check whether you are heading for coronary artery disease.
There are several mechanisms through which the body regulates arterial pressure. In response to acute changes in blood pressure, the body responds through the baroreceptors located within blood vessels.
Baroreceptors are a form of mechanoreceptor that become activated by the stretching of the vessel.
How do baroreceptors maintain arterial pressure?
Image result for images of baroreceptors in arteries The baroreceptor provides a rapid negative feedback
loop in which elevated blood pressure causes the heart rate to decrease. Decreased blood pressure decreases baroreflex activation and causes the heart rate to increase and restore blood pressure levels.
What organ regulates blood pressure?
The kidneys The kidney is the main organ involved in controlling blood pressure. Blood pressure can be described as the resistance of the blood vessels acting against the blood flow generated by a heartbeat. The kidneys can regulate blood pressure through two main actions.
Kidneys secrete a hormone called renin, which converts angiotensin, which is inactive.
The liver creates and releases a protein called angiotensinogen. This is then broken up by renin, an enzyme produced in the kidney, to form angiotensin I. This form of the hormone is not known to have any biological function in itself but is an essential precursor for angiotensin II.
Angiotensin 11 is an important hormone that helps regulate your blood pressure by increasing it. It’s
part of a complex system of hormones, enzymes, and proteins called the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.
Angiotensin 11 narrows blood vessels and triggers more water and salt accumulation causing high blood pressure.
Doctors prescribe angiotensin-converting inhibitors and Angiotensin receptor blockers to reduce your high blood pressure.
In short, they are referred to as ACE inhibitors and ARBs. I am sure most of you are on one of them.
If the blood pressure is not maintained within the normal range, as years pass by such pressure can push out a section of an artery wall and weaken it. Such bulges are referred to as aneurysms.
If it breaks, it can bleed into your body, which could be serious. It’s possible in any artery, but an aneurysm is most common in your aorta, which runs down the middle of your body.
So, think of this serious problem that can lead to sudden rupture of the aneurysm, and keep your blood pressure within the normal range.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause coronary artery disease. It happens when plaque builds up in arteries close to your heart. This slows blood flow, which can bring chest pain or a strange heart rhythm (arrhythmia). A total blockage can cause a heart attack.
Peripheral arterial disease High blood pressure could narrow the peripheral arteries, too. You might have pain or cramps in your legs, often when you walk or climb stairs. We refer to this as intermittent claudication. It can also make you tired. The pain may go away when you rest and return when you move. Left untreated, PAD could bring more serious problems like stroke, ulcers, and loss of circulation in your legs, which can cause amputation.
If your blood pressure is not controlled, the heart can fail one day. In early stages, the heart muscles get thickened and are referred to as muscle hypertrophy, well seen on X, rays of the chest. On the X-rays, the heart has a shape of a boot.
Eventually, the heart fails and is referred to as heart failure. With heart failure, there is water logging in your body, especially in the legs called pitting edema and breathlessness due to congestion in the lungs.
Stroke In some situations, with uncontrolled blood pressure, you could get a hemorrhagic stroke.
Sometimes a clot can form in a brain artery, resulting in an ischemic stroke. In such a situation, your face droops, your arm can weaken, and you may have speech problems.
Dementia seems to be caused by uncontrolled blood pressure. HBP can cause plaque buildup in arteries that supply your brain. The clogging of those arteries can slow blood flow to the rest of your body. When it changes the way your brain works, it’s called “vascular dementia.”
Kidney failure High blood pressure is the second-leading cause of kidney failure. It narrows and hardens the blood vessels your kidneys use to help get rid of waste and extra fluid.
That keeps special filters, called nephrons, from getting enough blood and nutrients. That can eventually shut down your kidneys for good.
Eye problems
Over time, high blood pressure can slow blood flow to the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eyeball. It can also slow the travel of blood to the optic nerve, which helps send signals to your brain. Either may blur your vision or in some cases make it go away. HBP might also cause fluid to build under your retina.
That could scar the tissue and distort your vision. So, viewers neglecting to check your blood pressure frequently can result in disastrous situations.
Hope this video presentation was useful, and you can take some useful information home.
Until we meet again, Goodbye for now.
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