In this article, we will give you a complete guide about high blood pressure symptoms. Hypertension (also known as high blood pressure ) is a pathological condition in which the blood pressure levels at rest are consistently higher than the norm. In numerical terms, a person suffers from hypertension (i.e., he is hypertensive) when:
- The maximum arterial pressure (or systolic pressure) “constantly” exceeds the value of 140 mm / Hg;
- The minimum blood pressure (or diastolic pressure ) “constantly” exceeds t0 mm / Hg. value
Based on the causes, doctors distinguish two types of hypertension:
- Essential hypertension or primary, the result of a multiplicity of factors and not of a particular cause,
- Secondary hypertension, caused by the presence of a specific condition or disease (e.g., diabetes, chronic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, hypothyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, alcohol abuse, etc.).
Attention, the pressure rises at night. Therefore, according to experts, nighttime blood pressure is the most important.
High Blood Pressure Symptoms
Does Hypertension Cause Symptoms?
The symptoms of high blood pressure are, unfortunately, a real rarity. In fact, from the beginning and in general, until it has given rise to complications, hypertension is completely asymptomatic; that is, it does not cause any disturbance to the patient who suffers from it.
This lack of symptoms is why an individual often notices that they are hypertensive during a routine medical examination or medical check-up done for other reasons.
A certainly interesting aspect of hypertension, especially in terms of early diagnosis and treatment, is that the complications deriving from its lack of treatment are not immediate but arise after a few years from its onset, with a severity strictly correlated to the extent of the excess.—blood pressure (the more severe hypertension, the more serious the resulting complications).
For example, according to the most reliable estimates, the damage caused by untreated high blood pressure to the cardiovascular system and the cerebral compartment arises, respectively, after about 10 years and about 20 years after the hypertensive state’s onset.
Hypertension symptoms: High blood pressure headache pain in the neck
what are they, and when do they occur?
High blood pressure only shows signs of itself in specific situations. One of these situations – perhaps the best known and most important – is the so-called hypertensive crisis, which consists of a sudden and excessive rise in blood pressure, followed by a series of disorders, including:
- Sudden, throbbing headache affecting the whole head;
- Feeling heavy-headed
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Dizziness ;
- Cold sweats ;
- Blood from the nose ;
- Dyspnea and heartbeat ;
- Sense of overwhelming anxiety ;
- Nausea and vomiting ;
- Vision problems (blurred vision, sparkling phosphenes, punctate amaurosis, etc.).
Episodes of hypertensive crisis are circumstances that require immediate medical attention, as they can degenerate into serious complications, some of which are fatal.
Complications of a hypertensive crisis include loss of consciousness, memory loss, angina pectoris, pulmonary edema, stroke, heart attack, eye and kidney damage, loss of renal function, aortic dissection, etc.
Symptomatology in Secondary Hypertension
Readers are reminded that secondary hypertension is generally associated with the underlying disease’s symptoms responsible for its onset. This means, for example, that:
- In the presence of high blood pressure due to Cushing syndrome, the patient experiences, in addition to high-level pressure, disorders such as impaired glucose tolerance, truncal obesity, face-to-full moon, fat under the neck, facial flushing, purple, etc.
- In the presence of arterial hypertension due to hyperthyroidism, the affected individual suffers, and high blood pressure from tremors, bulging eyes, hot skin alopecia, asthenia, brittle hair, excessive sweating, etc.
High Blood Pressure Symptoms in the Newborn
In infants, hypertension causes slowing or failure of growth, seizures, irritability, lack of energy, and difficulty breathing.
High Blood Pressure Symptoms in the Child
In children as young as a few years old, high blood pressure can be responsible for disorders such as headache, unexplained irritability, fatigue, slow development, blurred vision, nosebleeds, and episodes of facial paralysis.
Complications
The persistence of hypertension involves serious damage to the blood vessels; mainly identified in atherosclerosis; this serious vascular damage has negative repercussions on the blood supply of the body’s organs. Which, precisely due to a lower blood flow, are, in turn, victims of damage.
Among the various organs of the body. Those that are most affected by the prolonged presence of hypertension and the consequent atherosclerosis are:
- Heart and blood vessels ( cardiovascular system );
- Brain ;
- Kidneys;
- Eyes;
- Organs of the reproductive system.
Causes of high blood pressure
The causes of high blood pressure are numerous. Based on the important typological distinction between the various forms of arterial hypertension. Which sees the existence of the so-called essential hypertension and the so-called secondary hypertension.
Causes of essential hypertension
Also known as primary hypertension, essential hypertension is the hypertensive state whose presence is attributed to a multiplicity of predisposing factors. Such as it is impossible to establish with certainty a precise and univocal trigger.
Therefore, essential hypertension is due to a combination of different situations and not to a single circumstance. Such as an illness, taking a certain drug, etc. According to the most reliable studies, among the possible factors that seem to contribute in an important way to the onset of essential hypertension, there are:
- The increase in the tone of the sympathetic nervous system (hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system);
- A certain genetic predisposition to high blood pressure (genetic factors);
- Familiarity with high blood pressure;
- Certain eating habits, such as the use of too much salt to season foods. The consumption of large quantities of coffee and the reduced intake of vitamin D ;
- The ‘ aging ;
- The overweight ;
- The sedentary lifestyle ;
- Some hormonal imbalances;
The Depression. The influence of depression on blood pressure levels is currently under study.
Essential hypertension characterizes most cases (more than 90%) of high blood pressure. In the adult and elderly population, making it the most common form by far.
Causes of secondary hypertension
Secondary hypertension is the hypertensive state that arises as a consequence of a specific disease or circumstance. In other words, secondary hypertension is the type of high blood pressure due to a well-defined and easily recognizable cause.
The list of diseases/conditions that can give rise to secondary hypertension include:
- Severe kidney diseases, such as chronic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, polycystic kidney, etc .;
- Severe heart disease ;
- Endocrine diseases, such as Cushing’s syndrome, pheochromocytoma hypothyroidism, hyperaldosteronism, hyperparathyroidism hyperthyroidism, acromegaly, and Conn’s syndrome;
- Diabetes ;
- The sleep apnea syndrome ;
- The pregnancy ;
- A severe congenital disability affecting the larger arterial vessels (e.g., coarctation of the aorta );
- The occlusion of a renal artery (or stenosis of a renal artery);
- The use of certain drugs. Such as the contraceptive pill, nasal decongestants, antitussives, NSAIDs, corticosteroids (e.g., cortisone ), and cyclosporine (immunosuppressive drug), natural preparations containing licorice. The antidepressants belonging to the category of inhibitors selective serotonin reuptake etc .;
- The systemic lupus erythematosus ;
- The scleroderma ;
- The use of drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamines;
- The abuse of alcohol ( alcoholism );
- Excessive intake of licorice.
Secondary hypertension is not very common and, in fact, constitutes the remaining 5-10% of cases not attributable to essential hypertension.
How Hypertension Causes Atherosclerosis
Premise: what is atherosclerosis in short
Atherosclerosis is the hardening and thickening of the arterial vessels of medium and large caliber. Complicated by the formation o atheroma n the aforementioned type of vessels’ inner wall.
Atheromas are plaques of lipid (mostly cholesterol ), protein, and fibrous material. Which, in addition to obstructing the lumen of the arteries and preventing blood flow. It can also become inflamed and fragmented.
The fragmentation of an atheroma is responsible for the dispersion, in the bloodstream, of mobile bodies, which can occlude small arteries, located even very far from the origin of the same atheroma.
Hypertension and Atherosclerosis: the link
When the blood pressure on the vessels’ inner walls is high (hypertension). These walls undergo microlesions. On which fats and other substances tend to deposit with time and repeat micro-lesions and the phenomena of deposition of fats. The so-called atheromas or atherosclerotic plaques begin to take shape (see the previous review). The formation of atheromas on the wall of arterial vessels involves. The following consequences for the affected artery segment:
- A reduction in the vessel size;
- A thickening of the muscular layer, which further worsens the reduction of the vessel size;
- A conspicuous reduction in the elasticity that distinguishes healthy arterial vessels;
- An increase in the vascular wall’s fragility, with a consequent greater predisposition to rupture of the affected vessels.
All of these vascular changes induced by atherosclerosis, in turn, affect hypertension, worsening it. In light of this, hypertension is, concerning atherosclerosis, a cause, and an effect.
Cardiovascular Complications
In the heart, prolonged hypertension can lead to problems, such as myocardial infarction (or heart attack ) and heart failure (or heart failure ).
On the vascular level, however, high blood pressure persistence can be responsible for aortic dissection (or aortic dissection )—the formation of aneurysms and peripheral arterial disease.
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Hypertension and Myocardial Infarction
At first, the patients with high blood pressure, the risk of myocardial infarction, are linked to atherosclerosis, promoted by hypertension. In fact, the hardening, thickening, and formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the arterial vessels responsible for oxygenating. The heart’s muscle tissues prevent the myocardium’s correct blood supply (i.e., the heart muscle ).
Hypertension and Heart Failure
Heart failure, or heart failure, is a serious condition characterized by the heart’s inability to pump blood effectively and with the right pressure.
In the presence of hypertension, the condition of heart failure arises from the greater workload. Which the heart of the hypertensive person is subjected to push blood into circulation. In the long term, in fact, this greater workload. The heart is called leads to the pathological thickening of the latter’s myocardium ( hypertrophy ).
Hypertrophy of the myocardium – in particular ventricular hypertrophy – is a change in the normal cardiac anatomy. That alters the heart’s functionality, compromising its pumping action (heart failure).
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Hypertension and Aortic Dissection
Doctors speak of aortic dissection when the innermost layer of the aorta wall. Which is the main artery of the human body – undergoes a small tear. The blood penetrates between the aforementioned inner layer and the outermost layers.
What results from an episode of aortic dissection is a sort of false canal. Whose wall is decidedly weaker than a normal vascular wall and more easily subject to ruptures.
The danger of aortic dissection is linked precisely to the possibility of rupture of the false canal. A rupture that involves the leakage of blood from the aorta. With often fatal consequences for the person concerned.
Hypertension and Aneurysms: High Blood Pressure Symptoms
An aneurysm is an abnormal dilation of a blood vessel—usually an artery – with a permanent character. Similar to small sacs, aneurysms have a very fragile wall and, for this reason, are at high risk of ruptures. But the rupture of the aneurysms involves severe internal bleeding, which often has a fatal outcome for the affected individual.
The most common aneurysm formation sites are the brain ( cerebral aneurysm ) and the aorta ( abdominal aortic aneurysm and thoracic aortic aneurysm ).
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Hypertension and Peripheral Arteriopathy
Peripheral arterial disease is a disease of the arteries that carry blood to the limbs, particularly the lower ones.
Mainly due to the consequences of atherosclerosis, the peripheral arterial disease involves reducing blood flow. The affected arterial vessels, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the tissues that the aforementioned vessels should provide for oxygen.
Renal Complications
How Hypertension Can Cause Kidney Failure
High blood pressure impairs kidney function because High blood pressure kidney pain headache.
It causes weakening and stenosis (narrowing) of the renal arteries, the arterial vessels that carry blood to the kidneys.
The narrowing of the renal arteries leads to. A reduced blood supply to the various components of the kidneys, which, precisely. For this reason, enter a state of suffering.
It alters kidney filtering abilities, resulting in the accumulation of unwanted substances. In the kidneys or loss of useful substances in the urine.
The kidneys’ e filtering capacities are affected by high blood pressure as the latter produces, over time, damage to some fundamental renal structures, such as glomeruli, tubules, etc.
Cerebral Complications
Complications affecting the brain induced by hypertension are mainly connected to atherosclerotic phenomena and consist of:
- Hemorrhagic stroke e
- Narrowing of the arterial vessels of the brain.
- Hemorrhagic stroke
In medicine, the term “stroke” means the partial or complete interruption of the blood supply to a certain brain area, which can be followed, in the absence of timely treatment, in the death of that area of the brain.
A stroke is called hemorrhagic when the interruption of blood supply is due. To the rupture of an arterial vessel in the brain. Which causes dangerous blood loss ( cerebral hemorrhage ).
Narrowing of the arteries of the brain
The narrowing of the brain’s arterial vessels leads the brain cells to a state of hypoxia. Resulting in a slow and gradual alteration of brain functions.
Due to hypertension, individuals who are victims of this complication manifest. At first, concentration deficit, memory loss, reduced thinking ability.
