Hypertension, otherwise known as high blood pressure is a condition whereby people experience elevated blood pressure levels. A high blood pressure prompts the heart to pump harder and this can be detrimental to a patient’s health. Some of the conditions linked with high blood pressure include strokes, heart attacks, aneurysm, and heart failure. There are various causes of hypertension one of them being smoking. This is due to the nicotine, which forces the heart to beat faster thus causing high blood pressure. Smoking also constricts the arteries and this gives people a high blood pressure.

Salt (Sodium Chloride) is another cause of high blood pressure and this happens when people take too much salt in their diets than their bodies require. This mostly affects people who are over fifty years of age, are of African descent, have kidney disease or have high blood pressure in their families. People are therefore advised to reduce the intake of salt in their diets as a way of reducing the risk of getting hypertension. Other foods to avoid include smoked meats, sausages, canned foods and soups as well as smoked salmon. Using lemon juice and herbs to flavour foods is encouraged instead of using salt.

Saturated fats are among the causes of hypertension and they end up giving people high cholesterol; levels. This leads to a condition known as atherosclerosis which accelerates high blood pressure. People must therefore avoid consuming large amounts of dairy foods, animal foods and meats since they have a high content of the saturated fats. Other things to avoid include cocoa butter, coconut oil and palm oil. Processed foods such as snacks and crackers must be avoided as well if people want to stay away from hypertension. Other conditions that are linked to saturated fats include stroke and heart attack.

Kidney disease is among the causes of hypertension and this happens when the kidney is unable to control the blood pressure. The kidneys have cells which monitor the pressure of the blood that is passing through them. If high, the kidney is responsible for adjusting this pressure. This will not be the case if the kidneys have failed and this is a contributing factor towards getting high blood pressure. When the renal arteries present in the kidneys fail, the blood flow becomes less and this leads to high pressure. This is because the rennin hormone becomes unable to control the angiotensin and the aldosterone hormones.

The use of birth control pills is another cause of high blood pressure. Women who use pills that contain both progesterone and oestrogen and this raise the risk of them getting hypertension. They increase the heart rate and by doing so raise the blood pressure. This however happens in some women whereas some never experience these changes. Women at a risk of high blood pressure include those that use pills after 35 years of age, those that have a past history of the condition as well as those who smoke. It is therefore advisable for women to take pills which contain progesterone only since they lower the risk of raising the blood pressure

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