Silent Killer - Understanding Why Hypertension is called the Silent Killer Disease

High blood pressure is widely known as the “silent killer”. Statistics have it that out of the fifty million Americans afflicted with hypertension or high blood pressure, only an estimated of thirty million had proper diagnosis.

In fact, most of those who were diagnosed did not visit their doctors to find cure or treatment for high blood pressure, but merely to acquire medical certification for a clean bill of health for insurance or employment purposes.

In some other cases, they may have submitted themselves to treat the symptoms of other disorders like heart attack, kidney failure, or other problems related to high blood pressure.

Essential Hypertension and Secondary hypertension

High blood pressure can be an offshoot of another major problem. If the proper treatment methods of the main disease had been observed, blood pressure could have been prevented as a resulting complication. Based on statistics, less than 10% of diagnosed high blood pressure stem from another disorder and this is known as secondary hypertension.

On the other hand, the common form of hypertension we usually encounter is called essential hypertension. It is often the result of several factors such as heredity, lack of exercises, stress, excessive weight, or poor diet.

Except for heredity, the other causes are diet related wherein the excessive intakes of salt resulting to imbalance between sodium and potassium is the most common contributing factor.

However, high blood pressure does not happen overnight, but slowly creeps into your system. It may even take years to develop since the body is trying to adapt to the changes. Hence, the rest of the 50 million included in the survey but who have not submitted themselves for medical examination are endangering themselves from being victimized by the “silent killer” that is high blood pressure.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

To understand the acuteness of this disease, you should have a thorough understanding of what high blood pressure is, as well as the factors that causes it to take place. Controlling high blood pressure requires you to monitor your own blood pressure readings. For this purpose, it will be useful for you to know that the normal blood pressure among adults is 120 /80, read as 120 systolic and 80 as diastolic.

The heart’s function is to purify and pump out blood for distribution to the different body cells, tissues, muscles, and organs. In order to pump out the blood, a force known as systolic is needed by the blood to surge forward into the blood stream. The diastolic on the other hand is the pump pressure for producing fresh supply of blood.

However, certain dietary factors may cause some viscosity to our blood, or may harden or constrict our arterioles or render a great number of arterioles to be less receptive to the blood being pumped in, causing peripheral resistance to the flow of blood.

As a result, certain hormones will be released in an attempt to correct the impediments, or help the body cope with the imbalances and changes. If the pressure points will not be relieved, it will rise to a dangerous level, blood will be pushed just anywhere in order to find a release. This condition is simply known as hypertension or high blood pressure, the “silent killer” disease.

A deeper understanding of the blood circulation process and the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle, can lead us to a wealth of information on how we can avoid becoming a victim of this "silent killer".

In case a person is already a hypertension sufferer, understanding how and why blood pressure rises can help you realize the possibilities of controlling your high blood pressure the natural way.