Is High Blood Pressure a Serious Thing?

15 Jul Is High Blood Pressure a Serious Thing?

You may be surprised when your doctor first hands you a diagnosis of Hypertension or High blood pressure. Most people consider themselves healthy and haven’t experience any symptoms when they are diagnosed with high blood pressure. However, once you know you have it, you can reduce your risk of serious consequences by having your high blood pressure treated.

The risks of ignoring your high blood pressure instead of treating it are immense. Untreated hypertension silently damages almost every organ in your body.

Heart and Blood Vessels

As the name suggest, in a patient with high blood pressure, the pressure of the blood against the walls of the arteries is very high. The excessive force may damage the cells that line the inside of your arterial walls. These damaged walls start collecting fat from the diet, narrowing the arteries stiff and making them narrow.

Weak blood vessels may develop aneurysms (a bulge that can rupture) that may lead to internal bleeding, even death. The damaged vessels also reduce blood flow to important organs, including your heart itself. This can cause an enlarged left heart, heart attack, or even heart failure.

Brain

Weakened vessels may not be able to properly supply blood to the brain. When the brain doesn’t get enough blood, it is deprived of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function. This puts you at risk for:

• Stroke: caused due to blood clots or lack of oxygen and nutrients
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA): a mini “stroke” that could be a sign that you’re at risk for a full-blown stroke
• Mild cognitive impairment: reduced cognitive function, memory, and understanding
• Dementia: permanently impairment in your ability to speak, think, reason, remember, see, and move

Kidneys

When you have high blood pressure, the blood vessels that lead to and leave the kidneys may be damaged. Without proper blood flow, the kidneys are unable to filter wastes and toxins from your blood. Untreated high blood pressure can lead to –

• Kidney failure
• Kidney scarring: a scarred kidney can’t filter wastes, and eventually fail
• Renal artery aneurysm: an aneurysm in the artery leading to the kidney can cause life-threatening internal bleeding

Eyes

Like other organs, eyes receive nutrients and oxygen through blood vessels. High blood pressure can cause the small vessels in your eyes to be damaged, resulting in –

• Retinopathy: bleeding in the eye, blurred vision, and even complete vision loss
• Choroidopathy: fluid buildup under the retina that leads to distorted or impaired vision
• Optic neuropathy: blocked blood flow to the optic nerve can cause bleeding in your eye or vision loss

Other systems

Men and women may experience sexual dysfunction due to high blood pressure. Other consequences of high blood pressure include osteoporosis and obstructive sleep apnea.

Don’t avoid treatment for your high blood pressure. Schedule a consultation with an internal medicine doctor right away.

If you are looking for the best internal medicine doctors or San Diego pain management doctors, call Pacific Medical Care at 619-333-8114 Today. All you have to do is make a phone call to the San Diego pain management center and the doctor will be at your doorstep within a short while! The pain management doctors and internal medicine doctors at Pacific Medical Care are Board Certified, highly skilled, compassionate and knowledgeable.