An Explanation of High Blood Pressure
Uncontrolled Hypertension can Precipitate a Paralyzing Stroke
Aug 5, 2008
“Recent research” says Dr. Mark Nelson, Professor of General Practice at Australia's University of Tasmania, “shows that fewer than half the people with high blood pressure in Australia are actually taking their medicines as prescribed!”
It’s certainly true – not only in Australia but all over the world. Several recent studies have shown that over half the world's patients who are prescribed pills to keep their high blood pressure (Hypertension) under control still have abnormally high blood pressure levels.
What a waste of money - considering that millions of dollars are spent on these medicines!
Hypertension is one of the commonest diseases afflicting people. When someone is found to have high blood pressure, lifestyle changes (like losing weight, quitting smoking, increasing physical exercise) are recommended to bring the pressure back to normal. Medications may also need to be taken to help reduce the elevated pressure. What usually happens is that patients listen very nicely to their physicians – and then go out and do precisely what they shouldn’t!
The aim of treating high blood pressure is to prevent or delay life-threatening events such as heart attacks and strokes. If someone's blood pressure remains high, the heart attack or stroke that would usually bring death in their eighties will strike (and usually kill) during the prime of life. Don’t we all have friends, relations or colleagues who died of a heart attack or stroke in their fifties?
If you don’t want to follow suit, it certainly pays to take steps to normalize your pressure.
Often, simple measures like losing weight, giving up cigarettes, taking up meditation and undertaking regular exercise can bring elevated pressure back to normal. Of course, if changing your “blood pressure elevating habits” is not enough, you will (in common with a few million other people in the world) need blood pressure lowering tablets.
One common reason for people stopping their blood pressure medicines is that almost all these tablets can have side effects – some more unpleasant then others. Not everybody who takes these tablets will suffer adverse effects – but we cannot predict who will be affected. So unless you understand the importance of keeping your pressure down, you will almost certainly surrender to these unpleasant symptoms and stop taking the tablets, even though the tablets are actually keeping your pressure down!
Some blood pressure medications called Diuretics (with names such as furosemide or frusemide and thiazides) reduce the fluid in your circulation by getting rid of it as urine. Diuretics can make you feel weak and tired – and occasionally precipitate acute joint pains like gout.
Other tablets known as Beta-blockers (with names like propanolol, sotolol, atenelol, metoprolol etc.) can sometimes give rise to asthma-like wheezing and breathlessness.
Calcium channel blocking medications can give some people marked constipation (eg verapamil) or ankle swelling and headaches (eg nifedipine, amlodipine) – while drugs known as ACE inhibitors (enalapril, ramipril, perindopril etc) are notorious for causing persistent cough.
Being aware of the likely side effects before you start treatment is important. Then, if they become unbearable, you can always go back to your doctor and ask about changing to another type of tablet. There are several groups of medications, each working in different ways, that can bring pressure down - so finding one that suits you should not be difficult.
Remember - not keeping blood pressure under control can precipitate a paralyzing stroke or fatal heart attack. This should remind you to persist with your treatment and not forget to take your pills!
