How to Control Your Blood Pressure

We explore the origins of high blood pressure and offer 10 steps for fighting the good fight against it.

Blood pressure basics

Some pressure is absolutely essential for circulation. Without it, blood cannot move from the heart to the brain and toes and back again. The heart provides the driving force – each contraction of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber, creates a wave of pressure that passes through the aorta and all the arteries in the body.

Relaxed and flexible arteries offer a healthy amount of resistance to each pulse of blood. Arteries that are tensed, constricted, or rigid offer more resistance, which shows up as higher blood pressure. It also makes the heart work harder.

High blood pressure is not a disease. Instead, it is a sign that something isn’t right in the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, or elsewhere. Sometimes it stems from the overproduction of hormones by the thyroid or adrenal glands. It can also be caused by the use of prescription or over-the-counter medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, pseudo-ephedrine, some antidepressants, steroids, and others. Most of the time, though, high blood pressure can’t be traced to a specific source.

Feeling the pressure

The constant stress of high blood pressure causes physical and functional deterioration wherever blood vessels reach – every nook and cranny of the body. We’ll work our way from the blood vessels and heart toward the other so-called target organs.

BLOOD VESSELS

There’s a sort of chicken and-egg connection between high blood pressure and blood vessels. High blood pressure engineers changes in artery walls, while changes in artery walls contribute to high blood pressure. The three main effects are:

Stiffening