High Blood Pressure Causes

What Causes High Blood Pressure

To understand the causes of high blood pressure, you need to know the difference between the two types of high blood pressure:

Essential hypertension

In as much as 95 percent of adult high blood pressure cases, a cause cannot be identified. This is called essential hypertension (or primary hypertension), and it tends to develop over many years.

Secondary hypertension

The remaining five percent or so of high blood pressure cases are caused by an underlying condition, which is referred to as secondary hypertension. Unlike essential hypertension, this usually appears out of the blue. There are different types of conditions and medications that can lead to secondary hypertension:

• Kidney abnormalities
• Adrenal gland tumors
• Some congenital heart defects
• Medications, such as over-the-counter pain relievers, birth control, cold remedies, decongestants, and other prescription drugs
• Illegal drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamines

While hypertension can be a silent ailment at times, it is linked to certain concrete risk factors. One is hardly in your power to change, and that is genetics. Your age and race come into play as well. In fact, African Americans are twice as likely as Caucasians to have high blood pressure. That gap narrows once people start to reach middle age (mid to late 40s).

Another significant risk factor for essential hypertension is your diet and lifestyle. One of the most compelling connections between diet and high blood pressure is your sodium intake. Time and again it has been shown that people with a high intake of salt are at a much higher risk of high blood pressure than those who keep their sodium intake to a minimum.

Other factors that are associated with essential hypertension are obesity, diabetes, stress; smoking, low intake of potassium, calcium and magnesium; a sedentary lifestyle and chronic alcohol consumption.

While hypertension can be a silent ailment at times, it is linked to certain concrete risk factors. One is hardly in your power to change, and that is genetics. Your age and race come into play as well. In fact, African Americans are twice as likely as Caucasians to have high blood pressure. That gap narrows once people start to reach middle age (mid to late 40s).

Another significant risk factor for essential hypertension is your diet and lifestyle. One of the most compelling connections between diet and high blood pressure is your sodium intake. Time and again it has been shown that people with a high intake of salt are at a much higher risk of high blood pressure than those who keep their sodium intake to a minimum.

Other factors that are associated with essential hypertension are obesity, diabetes, stress; smoking, low intake of potassium, calcium and magnesium; a sedentary lifestyle and chronic alcohol consumption.