Although hypertension is a fairly common health issue, very few people are properly knowledgeable about it. Many adults suffer immense health problems because of undiagnosed and untreated high blood pressure. No one requires that you become an expert at all health issues. However, as part of preventive health care, you must learn more about potentially life-threatening health issues, especially when predisposed to high-risk factors. With hypertension, it may be too late for you if you wait until you have uncontrolled hypertension necessitating emergency care.
It is a condition that refers to heightened blood pressure. Ideally, when blood travels from the heart to other parts of the body, it exerts a certain amount of pressure on the arterial walls. The force exerted needs to be within control, having a normal range of 130/80. As such, anything over the 140/90 mark is regarded as high blood pressure. You will need urgent treatment at a 24-hour emergency room if your pressure goes over 180/120, which usually indicates severe high blood pressure.
Although anyone can suffer from hypertension, certain groups of people are at a higher risk of this illness than everyone else. Some of the people most likely to have high blood pressure are:
Pregnant women are among the groups of people highly predisposed to getting high blood pressure in the course of the nine months of pregnancy. Some types of hypertension that can occur during pregnancy are:
The thing about hypertension is that it does not always manifest any symptoms. It may take a while before you ever realize you have high blood pressure, which is why the condition is often called the silent killer. Usually, you have to wait until you have a reading of 140/90 or higher, which you will only find out upon visiting a doctor near you for a checkup. Still, you can rely on the following symptoms, which are likely for patients with hypertension, as your sign that you need a checkup in an ER near you:
If you have to visit an ER for high blood pressure, it means that your blood pressure is significantly high. The treatment for severely high blood pressure differs from that for mild hypertension. Some of the medication that your doctor may prescribe include the following:
While you may not appreciate regularly walking into an emergency room for high blood pressure treatment, not treating the illness can have adverse consequences to your health. Some of the issues connected to untreated high blood pressure are: