HEALTH TALK: Is there high blood pressure in your future?
Dr. Victor Emanuel - Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 1:11 PM
If you’ve been on planet Earth, and Dominica in particular, in the last two years, you could not have missed the buzz words “Chronic Non- Communicable Diseases” in the print and electronic media. The focus has tended to be on Diabetes for some reason but, in fact, hypertension is more prevalent and has a higher incidence.
I would not wish to minimize the importance of diabetes in any manner, but I think hypertension issues ought to be given more prominence. At least, most people with diabetes will be symptomatic, but the only way that we can determine whether most people are hypertensive is to put that cuff around their arm and MEASURE it. In other words, for the most part, it presents NO symptoms.
Sure, in many cases, there is the headache and dizziness at high readings, but this constitutes the minority of cases.
Prehypertension: Are You At Risk?
A blood pressure reading of 120/80 mmHg used to be considered textbook normal. However, according to guidelines in existence for about a decade now, this reading is higher than normal – or prehypertension. It is a warning sign that you may get high blood pressure in the future.
A higher than normal blood pressure means your heart and arteries work much harder, which can lead to hardening of the arteries.
High blood pressure increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and kidney failure.
Is There A Cure For Hypertension?
That depends. There are two basic classifications of high blood pressure: 1) Primary, which constitutes well over 90 percent of cases, meaning no cause can ever be found. If you can’t find a cause, then essentially there is no cure, 2) Secondary, meaning there is something causing your high blood pressure which, if we can cure or remove, we can cure your high blood pressure. A secondary cause may be even some medication you’re taking.
Especially for primary cases, we can talk about treatment, though not cure, with diet, lifestyle habits and medications.
What Is Prehypertension?
Prehypertension indicates that the systolic (top number) reading is 120-139 mmHg, or the diastolic (bottom number) reading is 80-89 mmHg.
While I’m at it, let me just tell you what the blood pressure categories are. Prehypertension was just defined. So a NORMAL blood pressure reading is actually 119/79mmHg or below.
Stage I hypertension: 140/90 mmHg to 159/99 mmHg.
Stage II hypertenison: 160/100 mmHg or above.
Here’s an interesting tidbit: we know that starting as low as 115/75 mmHg, the risk of heart attack and stroke doubles for every 20-point jump in systolic blood pressure or every 10-point rise in diastolic blood pressure for adults age 40-70.
Risk Factors
People with prehypertension may have a greater number of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. These risk factors – such as cholesterol, obesity, and diabetes – are seen more in people with prehypertension than in those with normal blood pressure.
Is Prehypertension A Result Of Aging?
The simple answer is NO. In some parts of the world, there is a minimal rise in blood pressure with aging. In the Mexico and the South Pacific for instance, people have very low salt intake. In these areas the age-related rise in blood pressure is small compared with the U.S.
Is There Treatment For Prehypertension?
Prehypertension is a warning sign. It means that you’re at greater risk of high blood pressure. Depending on your blood pressure and risk factors for heart disease, you may only need to make lifestyle adjustments. Here are some tips to help you manage prehypertension:
- Loose Weight If You’re Overweight. Just as being overweight increases the risk of high blood pressure, losing weight can lower high blood pressure. Modest weight loss can prevent hypertension by 20% in overweight people with prehypertension.
- Exercise regularly. This helps you to lose weight and to lower your blood pressure.
- Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, fish, and low-fat dairy. Studies show high blood pressure can be lowered and prevented with the DASH diet. This diet is low in sodium and high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, protein, and fiber.
- Cut back on dietary salt/ sodium. This is something every nurse, doctor or health educator has been preaching to you. Aim for about one teaspoon of table salt daily.
- Eat foods low in saturated and trans fat and cholesterol. A lot of saturated fat (meats and high-fat dairy), trans fat (some margarine, snack foods, and pastries) and cholesterol (organ meats, high-fat dairy, and egg yolks) may lead to obesity, heart disease and cancer.
- Eat a plant-based or vegetarian diet. Increase servings of fruits and vegetables by adding one serving at a time. You can add a serving of fruit at lunchtime. Then add a serving of vegetables at dinner (or light supper).
- Drink only in moderation Excess alcohol can raise your blood pressure. Men should have no more than two drinks per day (preferably red wine), and women should have no more than one.
It’s important to get your blood pressure checked regularly. Know your blood pressure number. Monitor at home between doctor’s visits and let him know if your numbers seem to be going out of control.
Take this thing seriously. Don’t wait for symptoms to have yourself checked. By that time, it really might be too late.
See you next week.
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14 Comments
To Betts: I understand that you personally know Doctor Emanuel and because of that you are going to take offense against those who do not simply agree with what he has to say about medicine and health situations.
I myself, I have nothing to gain or lose to stand for or against people and their ideas. But that does not mean I have to accept everything certain people say and do.
Francisco Etienne may or may not have reasons to challenge Dr Emanuele’s ideas in that article. But I needed to show him that he might have a good point, since I myself suffers from the illness that Dr. Emanuel spoke to Dominicans about.
My observation is that Dr. Emanuel did not speak about anything new about Hypertension… I have read, or heard about all the suggestions, to keep Hypertension under control, that the doctor mentioned, from other medical advisers.
….
I do not know Doctor Emanuel any more than I know Francisco Etienne, I have the ability to discern for myself… Neither does it affect me whether Francisco Etienne spoke the truth or not. I do not care.
I do not understand why you feel that you must respond to my comment, putting me through the challenge of choosing between your Doctor and another person, both of whom I know nothing about.
Elizabeth Xavier,
Can I ask you please, on behalf of Dr. Emanuel, to sit down and read carefully and slowly the aticles he has written and try to properly understand what he is saying.
I have pointed out some of the lies and misrepresentations of Francisco about what’s been written in the articles. Don’t just gloss over them, please READ them.
Dr.Emanuel is someone whom I know has well over 20 years experience in the practice of medicine, and who is revered and respected by his colleagues. Would you prefer to listen to him or to someone who has an electrical shop?
Francisco,
It’s only for the benefit of the vunerable that I even dignify your crap and misinformation with any comment.
Let’s just look at a couple of your lies.
You said that Dr. Emanuel wrote that high blood pressure has no symptoms; this is a boldface lie.
What Dr. Emanuel wrote was that……” the only way we can determine whether most people are hypertensive is to put that cuff around their arm and MEASURE it. In other words, for the most part, it presents NO symptoms.” Obvoiusly, you do not even know what a simple word like “most ” means.
Similarly, with respect to diabetes, which you alluded to in your previous comment, what the doctor said, again, was…..”most people with diabetes will be symptomatic.”
Please find a dictionary and look up the words “most ” and “will.” Or use your fancy laptop.
Again, you LIED on the doctor when you commented that he said no pain, no gain, and that one needs to drink eight glasses of water per day.
What the doctor said in an article entitled ” 12 HEALTH RULES YOU CAN BEND,” under heading 5, was “When it comes to exercise, no pain, no gain.” For your simple little mind, let me break down what he was obviously saying: whereas everybody may be telling you you have to feel pain to gain, as a rule, this is one rule you can break, because this is NOT true.
It was in this same article where the doctor under 12, said, “other liquids count,”…..”lettuce, melons, and soup-that are full of water.”……”Rules are made to be broken, But take a common sense approach.”
He NEVER advocated drinking any amount of water in a day.
Getting back to the “no pain, no gain” issue, go back to the article entitled, “WHEN NOT TO EXERCISE,” and you will find under the sub-heading, “You felt a sharp pain the last time you worked out,” the words on the last line, IT IS NEVER O.K. TO FEEL PAIN.
I won’t even delve into any of the extraneous nonsense you were trying to feed the readers under the guise of having medical knowledge. What is not inaccurate is 20 years old.
I told you before I AM a medical person unlike you, and becausre I know Dr. Emanuel is too dignified a gentleman to get into it with you -yet-I will respond to your lies and crazy utterings.
Everythng you said about yourself and your job has allowed me to make a diagnosis of your condition, but I will confirm with our local psychiatrist.
For now, just stop lying on my colleague, and stop misleading the poeople with your bogus writings!!
One more thing. I have read something that is similar to what Doctor Emanuel said about Hypertension. the part that says one only knows he/she has it, if they put on the cuffs. What I have read like that is, that Hypertension is a silent killer, because there is no warning.
I have also read before, about the drinking of eight glasses of water a day. So it does seem as if the doctor is just telling people about the things he read about health issues, not what he has discovered through intensive research programs.
Anyhow, you mentioned that hypertension has many symptoms, could the situation which I mentioned be one of them? Can you mention a few others?
Francisco Etienne, I believe that you are saying something here. I was diagnosed with Hypertension ten years ago. And to tell you the truth I would not know that I had that disease if I was not visiting my doctor for other health issues.
Today I believe that the reason I could not know that I had the disease was because I did not know how to recognize the symptoms of Hypertension. And that might be the problem with most people. We do not know how to recognize a disease in our bodies because we cannot relate to the symptoms at the very beginning.
I say that because as the years went by I started to notice that at certain times I would experience extreme nervousness and agitation. At one time I went to my doctor and after I told how I was feeling. Having checked my blood pressure and my heart rate, he told me that I was experiencing that kind of nervousness because my blood pressure was extremely high.
I was using two kinds of medicine at that time, so my doctor gave me a third one. After taking all three medication at the same time, my blood pressure went back to normal, and the nervousness and agitation subsided as well
I continue to take my medication, but from time to time I stop for a while, Today I notice that whenever my blood pressure is way above normal for at least seven days or more I feel nervous and agitated. I go back to taking my medication; my blood pressure goes back to normal, and my nervousness subsides.
I concluded that nervousness and agitation is a symptom of hypertension that tells me i have ignored taking my medication. I do not know about other people.
@betts:
Francisco,
” Obviously, you have nothing to do but try to create mischief, even to try to embarass the good doctor who is only trying to help his people.”
How can you say that, when you have not even seen the comments; and facts I wrote in regards to where he states high blood pressures has no symptoms!
DNO, did not post that the piece with the major comments I made, and submitted last night!
High blood has many symptoms, I am not trying to embarrass anyone I simply commented on a statement the man made that is false, nothing more nothing less.
If you go on my site, you can read about hypotension, and hypertension, the symptoms, and treatment. Accept what he is talking about as medical fact if you want, but if find him in errors, should I have the right to comment on it.
He is writing in a public forum, so he may have embarrassed, when he made the claim that the only way we know when someone has high blood pressure is by putting the cuff’s on!
What nonsense it that?
None of you will challenge anything he writes, because you are not trained in the field of medicine, I can respond to anything he touches on because I am also a health science major, and knows what he is talking about from a medical scientific point view.
He said ” the only way to know if someone has high blood pressure is to put the cuff on.
Here I will state: Normal upper limits for blood pressure have been the subject of much debate and controversy, especially in determining degrees of hypertension. On the basis of validated research on the long-term effects of an elevated blood pressure, it is generally agreed that some degree of risk for major cardiovascular disease exists when the systolic pressure is greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg, and the diastolic pressure is greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg
Life expectancy is reduced at all ages and in both males and females when the diastolic is above 90 mm H.
I wrote all of the above simply to get to this.
Measurement Of The Blood Pressure:
The blood pressure is usually measured in the artery of the upper arm, with a sphygmomanometer. I think that takes care of that so, in conclusion, I’ll when people set out on a path to do something such as educating the public people about their health, one need to be as accurate as they can, if they error, they should be big enough to correct their errors, when they are exposed.
He wrote something one time talking about in exercising, no pain no gain, and one need to drink eight glass of water per day!
That’s his philosophy, that is not found in any medical curriculum, or any medical journal that I read, or know of!
If Doctors were untouchables, and perfect, their patients would not die!
And again, do not worry, about my time, I am functional, and not one minute of my day is wasted, When I am not busy with my Real Estate Business, I am busy with Telemaque Electrical, on a daily basics. If have nothing to do I hop into any one of my automobile, and head out of town, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, San Diego, Mexico, or Arizona,
Let not my time be your problem.
Utilize yours anyway you can! Right now you do not know where I am, I can tell you, I am at this moment sitting in the cool overlooking the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, you see, using my wireless lap-top to write this, so you might be happy to know that I am nether a couch potato, or one confined on back-side!
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
@ZERO:
Zero, if you let me have your E-mail address, I can send you some information regarding the Symptoms of both hypotension, and also hypertension.
Here are my E-mail addressee where you can reach me: FETelemaque@aol.com or through info@yvonnedods.com
My response to what Emanuel stated DNO did not print it. The fact is Emanuel stated that high blood pressure has no symptoms, and that is not true.
He erred!
I have written about both subject on my Website http://www.yvonnedods.com if you are interested in learning about the disease, you can get lots of information about it on my site.
I am going to review the information I uploaded there years ago, and update the information.
Check my site out, you maybe better inform, on the subject than what this guy wrote.
Just because one has a medical license does not mean they know it all. Some of us who do not have a medical license in some cease knows more and better than what these professional are talking about!
I am not rejoicing about this one, however, I just learn that the one who sent home Kathleen Mother from the Princes Margaret Hospital without any blood in her, when she should have given the lady a blood transfusion; is herself dead, from an easily treated disease.
Doctors a human too, if they write some in a forum that is misleading, and some out there with the knowledge to deal with what the know is incorrect, that person should be given the opportunity to point out the person errors wether they a doctor, or an earthly god, that’s how it works in a democracy.
These are not the days when people visits with a doctor, and hand you a pill, or something to drink, without explaining the purpose of their medication.
When I doctor gives you medication it mandatory that he/she explains the purpose, the effect it should have on the sickness being treated.
Just because a doctor writes something does not mean what he wrote is 100% correct. Because what read in all he wrote is not completely correct, and I pointed out his errors, but I suspect the powers that be prefer that people get the wrong information, and the actual symptoms of something arises, they ignore it thus jeopardize their life’s
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque.
Francisco,
Obviously, you have nothing to do but try to create mischief, even to try to embarass the good doctor who is only trying to help his people.
The information the doc provides is clear and consistent, yet you deliberately try to misrepresent what he has so carefully written. Anybody who reads and understands (possibly unlike you) the first couple of paragraphs knows that you are falsely accusing the gentleman of saying what he didn’t.
And by the way, just about everything you strayed into does not hold water.
If, as you have written before, you have some medical knowledge that you did not go all the way with, I am left to conclude that you are bitter about this, and maybe even somehow tormented.
Try to finish your training, write articles better than Dr. Emanuel, and then be happy. Stop trying to spoil people’s good names.
@Francisco-Etienne-Dodds Telemaque..I have read your comment,and can only conclude that human beings are indeed fragile and vulnerable,despite our show of bravado in certain circumstances..I believe the doc is the best person to respond to your comment,and maybe one day you may see something on DNO which looks like a response ..HOWEVER HIS TAKE WAS HEALTHY TO READ…..
@ZERO:
Zero, not many people who reads him understands what the doctor is talking about, and so it is not likely that you will find people commenting on the things he writes, unless they know what he is talking about.
Someone like me who has a little knowledge due to my limited background in medicine can from time to time give a response, and I may only be able to respond effectively if I am familiar with subject he is dealing with.
In this case I think he erred when he stated the only way we know when someone has high blood pressure is to ” put the cuff on”
That is not accurate, and I try to focus on that in my submission , read it completely if DNO uploads it.
Every disease has a symptom, and the symptom is not usually a pre-cursor to the disease , by the time the symptoms make the patient (s) sick person aware that there is a problem, that person may be living with the disease for years and not knowing it.
Example, one suffering from diabetes, dose not commence urinating frequently the same day they become afflicted with diabetes, but, since we know that diabetes is a progressive disease, as it progresses frequent urination develops, which we have to appreciate is a symptom of the disease.
One could be living with diabetes for more than twenty years, without any actual symptoms, that is why when most people go to doctors, they are told they have a certain disease, even diabets they immediately go into denial.
Sometimes in order to diagnose a patient properly, they run what is known as panel test, which includes CBC, and in reality checking all of your body chemicals.
When the results are analyzed, it is likely something will show up in your blood, and it may be something you been living with half of your life and not knowing you are sick.
In that test, when they check you sodium, potassium cholesterol, glucose, ect, ect, if they find that your glucose level exceeds 120 mg + or – 5 mg, chances are you are hyperglycemic that means your blood sugar is running high, so you are diagnose as having high blood sugar.
Actually a healthy person glucose should remain between 80, and 120 mg plus or minus five milligrams, so if it is found that you have a glucose level say 75 mg, any time of day that is still considered good, however if they find your glucose is below seventy-one (71 mg) there should be concern, because that could be an indication that you might be hypoglycemic.
So my conclusion here is simply this though people can live with a dieses for a long time without any symptoms, is not an indication that such sickness dose not have a symptom!
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
Great column!
Thanks to you DNO and my Dr.
i was told three years ago that my 120/80 was perfect what changed and what is normal today
Thanks for the information.
AMEN!!!!!! Most people are afraid to comment on health issues..Is this a disease also doctor????Ha! Ha Ha!!!
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