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The Psoriasis-Hypertension Link — And What You Can Do About It

Although the two conditions seem unrelated, there’s actually a strong connection between them.

By Kathleen HallMedically Reviewed by Ross Radusky, MD

Reviewed:

Medically Reviewed

Studies have found high blood pressure more common in patients with severe psoriasis.Getty Images

Psoriasis, an inflammatory disease that causes scaly red lesions on the skin, is often associated with other serious internal health conditions such as hypertension, or high blood pressure.

“Psoriasis is linked with metabolic syndrome, and this is probably due to inflammation,” says Jessica Kaffenberger, MD, a dermatologist and director of medical student education at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that raise your risk for heart disease. High blood pressure is one of the five symptoms of metabolic syndrome, along with abdominal obesity, impaired glucose regulation, high triglycerides, and reduced HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

Blood pressure measures the force of blood as it pushes against the artery walls. High blood pressure (140/90 mmHg or higher) is a significant risk factor for heart disease. A review of 24 studies published in the Journal of Hypertension in March 2013 that encompassed more than 300,000 psoriasis patients found high blood pressure more common in patients with severe psoriasis. In fact, more than half (54 percent) of the psoriasis patients had high blood pressure.

Results from a patient database in the United Kingdom revealed that people with moderate or severe psoriasis were 20 and 48 percent, respectively, more likely to have uncontrolled high blood pressure.

The Reason: Inflammation

The mechanism between psoriasis and hypertension is complex and not fully understood, but inflammation plays a critical role.

“When you have psoriasis, the inflammation causes many of the conditions [such as high blood pressure] that lead to heart attacks,” says Mark Lebwohl, MD, Sol and Clara Kest Professor of Dermatology and chair of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman department of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “If you look at the frequency of heart attacks in patients with inflammation, it’s higher.”

Research shows an association between psoriasis and an increase in several proteins and enzymes that indirectly raise blood pressure or increase inflammation. For example, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) converts the hormone angiotensin I into angiotensin II, which indirectly raises blood pressure by causing blood vessels to constrict. Patients with psoriasis may have increased levels of angiotensins and angiotensin–converting ACE, leading to high blood pressure.

Angiotensin II also stimulates the production of hormones that cause the kidneys to absorb salt and water, which in turn increases the amount of fluids in the body and raises blood pressure. Increased levels of the protein endothelin–1 in psoriasis patients has pro-inflammatory effects implicated in cardiovascular disease.

Reducing the Risks

Kaffenberger says she makes sure her psoriasis patients have a regular primary care doctor who can monitor their blood pressure. “I also encourage patients to lose weight and quit smoking,” she says. Many psoriasis patients are also overweight or obese, a key symptom of metabolic syndrome. Fat tissue also seems to be a source of angiotensin, so decreasing body weight may help lower blood pressure.

Some biologic drugs may significantly reduce the risk of heart attack in psoriasis patients. A class of biological therapies called TNF inhibitors, which are used to treat people with psoriasis and other psoriatic disease, reduce the risk of heart attack, says Dr. Lebwohl. TNF-a (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) is a protein involved in inflammation. TNF inhibitors, such as Humira, Enbrel, and Remicade, turn off inflammation.

“Many registries show that when patients with rheumatoid arthritis [also an inflammatory disease] and psoriasis were treated with TNF blockers, they had a 50 percent reduction in heart attacks,” he notes.

Managing inflammatory skin disease and traditional cardiovascular risk factors is important. “Anything that treats psoriasis reduces inflammation,” Lebwohl says. “TNF blockers reduce heart attack risk the most. The benefits to patients are clear skin and a reduction in comorbidities such as heart attack.”

How to Lower Blood Pressure

In addition to eating a healthy diet, losing weight, and getting regular exercise, you can help lower your blood pressure by reducing your salt intake. Here are a few salt-reduction tips from the National Psoriasis Foundation:

  • Choose fresh or frozen vegetables, which are generally salt-free or low-salt.
  • Choose low- or salt-free options in canned or prepared foods, or rinse foods (such as canned beans).
  • Limit salted or cured meats.
  • Go light on condiments, which are often hidden sources of salt.
  • Use herbs and spices, instead of salt, to flavor food.

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High blood pressure: does it have external signs?

  • Claudia Hammond
  • BBC Future

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People with red faces who are overweight and prone to sweating tend to have high blood pressure. But is everything as simple as we think? Correspondent BBC Future found out what science knows about this, and whether we can rely on this knowledge.

You must have seen some excited stranger scurrying down the street - puffy, arguing and with a red face. This spectacle involuntarily makes one think that the unfortunate person is probably suffering from high blood pressure. Maybe by looking at it, you will even promise yourself to appear in the gym more often.

(Similar articles from the "Journal" section)

If it's your friend or colleague who also starts complaining of headaches and nosebleeds, then you may be worried that these symptoms may not be harbingers of a heart attack or stroke. But can you really recognize the signs of high blood pressure just by looking at a person?

A person turns red when blood vessels close to the skin dilate to allow more blood to pass through. Sometimes a blush appears on the face suddenly, and the person suddenly becomes hot - for example, from shame or embarrassment. And sometimes the face turns red gradually - this process takes up to 20 minutes, and it can also be caused by embarrassment or heat, cold and heavy physical exertion. In all these cases, a person's blood pressure rises temporarily, but a blush caused by mountain biking, a walk in frosty weather, or an unexpected meeting with a former life partner is by no means a sign of persistent hypertension.

If facial redness persists, it may be a sign of rosacea, a skin disease associated with chronic inflammation of small blood vessels. High blood pressure can complicate the course of this disease, but people with rosacea are not always hypertensive.

Eccrine sweat glands are especially abundant on the face, as well as on the hands, feet and armpits. Their work is regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, which is also responsible for the reaction of the body to the detected danger and for our decision whether to fight or run away. Excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, may be hereditary or indicative of a number of other diseases - but not hypertension.

Image copyright, Thinkstock

Image caption,

Excessive sweating may be a sign of other diseases, not hypertension...

The body reacts in a certain way even when the stressful situation does not imply a threat to life. If you're in a hurry to get home, you miss your bus, or if you get into an argument with a friend, this can also cause a strong heartbeat and high blood pressure. However, once you get home and make up with a friend, these symptoms quickly disappear.

The relationship between stress and high blood pressure is very complex, and if a person's blood pressure often jumps under the influence of stressful situations, this can contribute to the development of hypertension. But if a person gets angry from time to time, this does not at all betray hypertension in him.

What about pressure headaches? Doctors used to think they were due to hypertension, but recent evidence suggests the opposite effect. When measuring pressure, two indicators are always taken into account. The top one, systolic pressure, is the pressure in the arteries when the heart muscle contracts. Research has found that people with high systolic blood pressure are much less prone to headaches, and those with a higher difference between the upper and lower values ​​(pulse pressure) are also less likely to suffer from headaches. And Brazilian scientists have found that people with high blood pressure are less likely to develop migraines.

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Interestingly, blood pressure medications are often effective in treating migraines. According to one version, the pain in this case decreases not due to a decrease in pressure, but due to the side effect of the drug.

By the way, this doesn't just apply to headaches and migraines. Recently, a study was conducted in Norway involving more than 17,000 people - for several years, scientists observed which of them would develop back pain. A third of the participants experienced this problem, but it was noticed that the higher their systolic and pulse pressure, the lower the risk of pain.

This reduced sensitivity to pain as a result of high blood pressure is referred to as hypertensive hypalgesia. This phenomenon also makes it possible to understand why migraines stop in some women in late pregnancy - during this period their pressure naturally rises. No one knows exactly the mechanism for the development of hypalgesia in hypertension, but according to one version, the thickening of the walls of blood vessels due to increased pressure interferes with the normal activity of nerve endings, and the pain becomes dull.

This does not mean that hypertension is good, but it seems that some of the symptoms, including headaches, are a sign of normal rather than high blood pressure.

If a headache is not an indication of high blood pressure, what about nosebleeds? The results of research on this subject are contradictory. So, Austrian scientists found that patients admitted to the emergency department of the Vienna Hospital with complaints of incessant nosebleeds, the pressure was indeed higher than the rest. However, studies conducted in Brazil did not establish any connection between these phenomena.

Image copyright, Thinkstock

Image caption,

Headaches are quite often unrelated to your blood pressure.

However, these studies were focused exclusively on people with nosebleeds. But in order to find out whether this problem really indicates high blood pressure, you need to understand how often it occurs among hypertensive patients. In Greece, a study was conducted among patients admitted to the hospital in an acute condition caused by high blood pressure. It turned out that persistent nosebleeds are observed only in 17% of them. It seems that in some patients, bleeding may be a sign of high blood pressure, but in most people this association is not observed.

The simplest answer to all these questions is that hypertension can often be asymptomatic - with one important caveat. If the pressure suddenly rises to a dangerous level, the person usually experiences severe anxiety, acute headache and dizziness, he suddenly lacks air. These symptoms may indicate a serious health problem and should not be ignored.

However, this is rare. In 90% of cases, the exact cause of hypertension is unknown. The only way to diagnose resistant hypertension is to have your blood pressure checked regularly. So if, at the sight of red-faced, sweaty and excited friends or strangers, you are seized by a sense of pride in the state of your own vessels, remember: high blood pressure is not in vain called the "silent killer".

Legal information. This article is for general information only and should not be taken as a substitute for the advice of a physician or other healthcare professional. The BBC is not responsible for any diagnosis made by a reader based on material on the site. The BBC is not responsible for the content of other sites linked to this page and does not endorse commercial products or services listed on those sites. If you are concerned about your health, see your doctor.

Read the original of this article in English is available on the website BBC Future .

causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment in BaltMed on Vasilyevsky Island

What is important to know about hypertension.

Of course, diseases are not the most interesting topic for conversation. Agree that it is much more pleasant and interesting to discuss new movies, a jewelry exhibition, an upcoming vacation at sea, buying a new car, the joy of successful negotiations at work, or a recent article on raising children from Psychologies.

However, if it so happens that you are interested in the topic of health and hypertension in particular, then this publication may be useful to you, from it you will learn:

  • What is high blood pressure?
  • How can it harm your health?
  • How do you know if you have hypertension?
  • How do I self-assess my risk of complications?
  • What to do next? How can a doctor help you? What can you do yourself?

First of all, this information will be of interest:

  • Those who already have high blood pressure
  • Those whose loved ones suffer from high blood pressure
  • Those who want to know in advance how to take care of their health now in order to prevent disease in the future.

What is blood pressure?

Arterial pressure (BP) is the force with which blood presses against the walls of blood vessels from the inside. BP is systolic and diastolic. Systolic is the pressure of blood in the arteries during the contraction of the heart. This is "upper pressure". Diastolic is the pressure of blood in the arteries when the heart relaxes. This is the "down" pressure. If you connect the pump to an inflated bicycle chamber and imagine that the pump is the heart, and the chamber is the vessels, then the pressure in the chamber, which will be at the moment the pump pumps air, will be systolic. And diastolic pressure is the pressure with which air presses on the walls of the chamber (blood presses on the walls of the vessels) while the pump is not operating. The level of diastolic pressure will depend on the elasticity of the chamber walls.

Normally, there is a certain corridor, and if the indicators do not go beyond it, we consider that the person’s pressure is normal. The boundaries of this corridor: not higher than 140/90 and not lower than 90/60. High blood pressure is more dangerous than low blood pressure. And if there are serious concomitant diseases, for example, diabetes, then the upper limit of the corridor goes down - 130/80 pressure should be lower than 140/90. Hypertension is a chronic disease in which there are periodic or persistent rises in blood pressure above 140/90. At the same time, this does not mean that every person who has ever had high blood pressure has hypertension. Short-term and slight fluctuations in blood pressure can be observed in different situations. For example, an increase in blood pressure is noted in the morning after waking up, with excitement, stress, physical activity, and smoking.

A short-term decrease in blood pressure is observed at rest, during sleep. Our body is threatened by a prolonged increase in blood pressure. Many factors influence the level of blood pressure. It depends on the volume of blood pushed out by the heart into the vessels, on the frequency and strength of the contractions of the heart and the elasticity of the vessels. If you draw analogies with a regular water hose for water, then you can increase the pressure in it by pinching a certain section of the hose. But you can also increase the pressure by opening the faucet harder and increasing the flow of water.

Arterial hypertension is a widespread disease, it occurs in 40% of the population. It is dangerous because it increases the load on the heart and causes vascular stiffness. Over time, high pressure injures the vascular wall, causing damage to blood vessels, cholesterol begins to be deposited in the vessel wall, which leads to rapid aging of blood vessels, their narrowing. Vessels lose their elasticity, become fragile and brittle. This increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, the 1st and 3rd leading causes of death. Also, the thickening of the walls of blood vessels causes a slowdown or cessation of the flow of oxygen-rich blood, resulting in damage to vital organs. As a result of these changes, complications of hypertension develop, which are dangerous.

Complications are acute, associated with a sharp jump in pressure: for example, a hypertensive crisis, stroke, heart attack, aortic rupture. Chronic complications develop gradually against the background of a long course of hypertension for decades, they arise as a result of atherosclerosis damage to small vessels that feed vital organs, as a result, these organs are chronically deprived of blood supply, rich in oxygen and nutrients, and eventually begin to function worse.

These organs are called target organs:

  • The first sign of kidney damage is the appearance of protein in the urine, then kidney function worsens
  • Visual impairment
  • The walls of the heart thicken, its relaxation and filling with blood becomes more difficult, angina pectoris appears, the pumping function of the heart worsens, heart failure develops
  • Damage to the walls of the aorta
  • The work of the brain is disrupted, which is manifested by a decrease in memory, quick wits, and attention.

In 95% of cases, the specific cause of the increase in pressure cannot be established - this is the result of the influence of a complex of factors - in this case, hypertension is an independent disease - and is called Hypertension. In 5% of cases, the cause can be identified and (often, but not always) eliminated - in this case, hypertension is a symptom of another disease.

The main organ involved in the regulation of pressure is the kidney. Problems with the vessels of the kidneys, the kidneys themselves or the adrenal glands are the bulk of symptomatic hypertension. Also, symptomatic hypertension can be caused by changes in the thyroid gland, congenital and acquired anomalies of blood vessels and the heart.

If you are over fifty and have just woken up and nothing hurts, then you have already died. So say the English scientists. We disagree with colleagues. This is what hypertension looks like. Most often, high blood pressure goes unnoticed, without showing itself. You can find out about it by chance at a physical examination. Therefore, it is important to undergo medical examination in a timely manner.

The insidiousness of hypertension lies in the fact that most people, even with very high blood pressure numbers of 180/100 and above, do not develop any symptoms.

The same people who feel increased pressure are concerned:

  • Throbbing headaches in the back of the head, heaviness in the head
  • Dizziness
  • Flashing "flies" before the eyes
  • Irritability, fatigue, depressed mood
  • Sleep disorders (insomnia, frequent waking up)
  • Visual impairments
  • Pain in the region of the heart
  • First, episodic increases in blood pressure, then persistent increases.

Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to complications

Let's take a closer look at the acute complications of hypertension first - these are emergency situations when you must immediately call an ambulance. If there is no way to call an ambulance, ask someone to take you to the hospital.

One of these situations is a Hypertensive crisis - this is a sharp, sudden jump in pressure, accompanied by a deterioration in well-being. Sometimes the state of health can be normal. However, a hypertensive crisis always requires urgent intervention. Provoking factors for a pressure surge can be:

  • Psychological and physical stress
  • Change of weather
  • Heavy smoking
  • Abrupt withdrawal of blood pressure lowering drugs, taking short-acting drugs
  • Alcohol use
  • Large meals, especially salty, and at night
  • Foods and drinks containing substances that increase blood pressure: coffee - caffeine, chocolate, cheese, caviar - tyramine.

It is very important to know what you can do yourself with high blood pressure before the doctor arrives

  • First of all, you need to measure blood pressure
  • Before the doctor arrives, try to lower your blood pressure yourself: to do this, take: Kapoten 25 mg - 1-2 tabs under the tongue or Corinfar 10 mg - 1 tab inside.
  • For pain in the heart - nitrospray - 1 injection under the tongue
  • You can not reduce blood pressure sharply, especially in the elderly and with a stroke, otherwise there may be cerebral ischemia (reduce by 20-25% in 2 hours).
  • Call an ambulance doctor.

Against the background of high pressure, it is important to pay attention to the manifestations characteristic of a stroke or a temporary violation of cerebral circulation.

For this you need:

  • Ask the person to smile. He can't do it with both corners of his mouth. The smile will be crooked.
  • Ask for a simple sentence, such as "the weather is fine today." He will not be able to say clearly, "the tongue is tangled."
  • Ask to raise both hands at the same time. He will not be able or will be able only partially
  • Ask to stick out the tongue - if it is twisted, turned - then this is a sign of a stroke.
  • Visual impairment in one or both eyes, dark spots
  • Disorders of gait, coordination, balance, dizziness
  • Severe headache without cause

If you find these symptoms, you should immediately consult a cardiologist.

Irreversible changes can be prevented by calling an ambulance in the first 4.5 hours after the onset of these symptoms.

Now a few words about the chronic complications of hypertension. As we said earlier, with a long course of hypertension, small arteries are primarily affected, causing disruption of the work of various organs: the heart, kidneys, eyes, brain, blood vessels. Therefore, these organs are called targets of hypertension. The vulnerability of these organs in different people is different - in someone the heart is first affected, in someone the kidneys, in someone the brain. The presence of hypertension cannot be known without measuring the pressure.

The only way to determine your blood pressure is to measure it at least occasionally. And come to the annual medical examinations to the therapist. To measure pressure at home, there is a special device - a tonometer. Pressure should begin to be measured after 30 years. Today in pharmacies you can find a wide variety of blood pressure monitors from various manufacturers. The main difference between tonometers is in the method of measuring pressure. There are manual mechanical blood pressure monitors, semi-automatic and fully automatic blood pressure monitors.

The main disadvantage of mechanical tonometers and at the same time the advantage of automatic tonometers is that mechanical tonometers do not allow you to measure the pressure yourself, especially when you feel unwell, since to determine the pressure you need to listen to your heart sounds with a stethoscope, so you need another person who will measure your pressure , while automatic blood pressure monitors require only putting on a cuff and pressing a button. Also, mechanical blood pressure monitors work without batteries, while automatic ones can work both from batteries and from the mains. There is a battery charge indicator on the display of the tonometer, which will allow you to avoid situations when a discharged battery will take you by surprise, just when you urgently need to measure pressure.

Most blood pressure monitors have a cuff that is worn on the shoulder or on the wrist. There are also sports fitness bracelets without a cuff that can measure pressure and pulse, as well as body temperature, blood oxygen saturation, pulse regularity, sleep duration. The most convenient and accurate are blood pressure monitors with a cuff on the shoulder.

Since different people have different arm diameters, cuffs come in different sizes depending on the diameter of the arm circumference. As a rule, a standard cuff (22-32 cm) or a universal cuff (22-42 cm) is included with the tonometer. If the cuff does not fit, then you can additionally purchase a cuff suitable for your tonometer model. They come in the following sizes: 1. Pediatric cuff: 15-22 cm (S) 2. Medium cuff: 22-32 cm (M) 3. Large cuff: 32-42 cm (L) 4. Extra large: 32-52 cm (L-XL) Cuffs are soft and rigid. Here you can focus on your preferences. As a rule, a rigid cuff provides a more comfortable measurement process. However, we recommend that you try the cuff on your arm before buying in order to choose the most suitable one. Rigid cuff Soft cuff Also, to ensure the accuracy of the result and reliability of use, we recommend using blood pressure monitors from well-known manufacturers, such as: Beurer, AND, Microlife, Omron, Littledoctor, CITIZEN, Sanitas, Medisana, Nissei, Panasonic.

Tonometers of different manufacturers and brands are equipped with various other functions that facilitate the process of measuring pressure and make it more convenient, for example, display backlight, sound signals, voice guidance, saving the results of previous measurements in memory, the ability to use one tonometer for two people, while the results of their measurements are saved individually. Here you can focus solely on your preferences. All tonometers show the measurement result as two numbers: systolic pressure (upper) and diastolic pressure (lower). BP is measured in mmHg. The tonometer also shows the pulse rate and the presence of arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).

In order to obtain accurate results using a tonometer, certain rules must be followed.

Rules for measuring pressure

It is necessary to measure the pressure while sitting, in a calm state for at least 5 minutes. Not earlier than 30 minutes after physical, emotional stress, food, cigarettes or coffee. If there is more pressure on one of the two hands, then for all subsequent measurements we select it. If a person is overweight and the circumference of his shoulder is more than 46 cm, then it is necessary to use a cuff with a width of 14 cm, otherwise the data will be overestimated.

  1. Sitting with support on the back of a chair, relax your legs. The arm is relaxed and rests on a flat horizontal surface, not on weight
  2. The hand is at the level of the heart
  3. The arm is stationary throughout the measurement
  4. Cuff 2.5 fingers above the elbow
  5. Do not cuff clothing, do not roll up sleeves to form a roll of fabric
  6. Repeated measurement on the same arm is possible after 1-2 minutes.
  7. Measurement of blood pressure - in the morning after waking up and in the evening before bedtime.

Further, the obtained measurement results are used to diagnose the presence of arterial hypertension, as well as to assess the risk of developing vascular complications, such as strokes and heart attacks, in the next 10 years specifically in your situation. This is called prognosis. This prognosis is influenced by your medical history, blood pressure levels, and test results. The examination is prescribed by a cardiologist or therapist to determine the state of your target organs at the moment. The examination allows you to get a holistic view of your health and understand which target organs will be vulnerable in the first place.

The minimum examination looks like this:

  • Monitoring of blood pressure and ECG per day. False-positive results occur in white-coat hypertension. When you see a doctor, your subconscious mind remembers how, as a child, a person dressed like this gave you a very painful injection in the ass, as you thought, completely unfair. This is stressful for you and the pressure naturally rises. "Hypertension," the doctor tells you. You come home, your wife measures your blood pressure - it is completely normal. In our case, the output is the daily monitoring of blood pressure. When a special wearable device measures the pressure every 20-40 minutes during the day. This is the "gold standard" for diagnosing hypertension
  • ECG,
  • Ultrasound of the heart;
  • Ultrasound of the kidneys;
  • urinalysis;
  • Doppler ultrasound of neck vessels;
  • Blood tests: cholesterol, sugar, clinical blood count;
  • Ophthalmic examination - assessment of the fundus vessels.

Knowing the test results, you and your doctor can assess your risk of vascular complications by answering questions. At the same time, if you have at least 1 item from the left column, then the risk of complications is already high and you need to immediately start drug treatment

Check if you moved:

  • Stroke;
  • Heart attack;

Please list your risk factors:

  • Age >55 for men and >65 for women
  • Smoking
  • Elevated cholesterol (>6. 5 mmol/l)
  • Cardiovascular diseases in relatives
  • Obesity
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Excessive consumption of alcohol

Please note if you have:

  • Angina pectoris
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Vascular disease of the legs ("intermittent claudication")
  • Aortic aneurysm
  • Renal dysfunction

Ask your cardiologist if you have:

  • Left ventricular hypertrophy
  • Fundus changes
  • Protein in urine and/or increased blood creatinine
  • Systolic BP >180/110 Each yes answer to the questions in this table corresponds to one risk factor.

The total number of yes answers tells you how many risk factors you have in total.

Then, compare the number of risk factors you have with your blood pressure levels and use the table below to estimate your risk of developing vascular complications over the next 10 years.

  • Low risk <15%,
  • Average risk 15-20%,
  • High risk 20-30%,
  • Very high risk >30%

Now you know your risk of vascular complications. What to do next?

The choice of further medical tactics for arterial hypertension depends on your level of risk. Each level of risk has its own tactics.

Low Risk: No immediate treatment needed, monitor blood pressure regularly for 6-12 mo. If after 12 months BP>150/95 - then you need to start drug therapy.

At Moderate risk: Regularly measure blood pressure for 3-6 months, non-drug correction of risk factors for 3-6 months. If, after 6 months, blood pressure > 140/90, then it is necessary to start drug therapy.

If you are at high risk: Immediate medical treatment. You need to see a doctor. To reduce the risk of vascular complications - heart attack and stroke, it is necessary to normalize blood pressure.

To do this, you need to understand what underlies high blood pressure. Pressure is based on both genetics and environmental influences. Therefore, all risk factors for the development of hypertension are divided into 2 large groups - these are:

  • Immutable factors. We cannot influence these factors, since they are determined by genes and are innate. These include: gender, age, heredity (the presence of cardiovascular diseases in close relatives at a young age up to 40 years). But in itself, a hereditary predisposition to arterial hypertension does not mean that a person will definitely get sick.

But when other negative factors join heredity:

  • Changeable factors. Most of them are our life habits. We can change them. These include: smoking, nutrition, obesity, excessive salt intake, inactivity, stress, nervous tension, cholesterol levels, alcohol abuse, coffee, blood pressure levels. One of these factors is the general abuse of salt, and specifically, sodium, which is part of it. Few people know that even without salting food on purpose, we nevertheless consume sodium three times more than the amount that we need. Sodium is found not only in table salt, but also in the mass of food additives in food products, such as preservatives, dyes, stabilizers, sweeteners, additives to improve the taste and color of foods, flavorings (for example, monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, sodium benzoate , sodium citrate, sodium cyclamate and others). Excess intake of sodium in the body is one of the most powerful risk factors for arterial hypertension. We will talk about this separately.

As for stress... Undoubtedly, stress often works like a detonator, it starts the process of arterial hypertension. But if a person who quarrels with his superiors, drives through city traffic jams, overcomes snowdrifts and puddles, etc., is provided with ideal living conditions, then arterial hypertension will not disappear from him.

The treatment of arterial hypertension is always a partnership between a doctor and a patient.

We would like you to have an understanding of what is in your power to do for yourself and how important it is to understand the purpose for which the doctor gives certain recommendations. This gives you the opportunity to prevent or slow down the course of the disease and reduce the risk of its complications.

Hypertension treatment includes both non-drug treatments and medications.

Non-drug methods relate to changing habits and lifestyle and are recommended for all patients, regardless of pressure numbers and risk levels. Non-drug treatments for high blood pressure include:

  • Power Features
  • Dietary sodium reduction
  • Maintaining the intake of potassium, calcium, magnesium in the body
  • Reduce dietary intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, increase vegetables and fruits
  • Increased physical activity
  • Restriction of alcohol consumption, coffee
  • Smoking cessation
  • Weight loss in obesity
  • Normalization of the regime of work and rest We will discuss all these factors separately later.

Medical methods include taking drugs from different groups, which can be combined with each other, and combined with non-drug methods of treatment.

Doctors