Your Guide to What Causes High Blood Pressure

Before you can understand what causes high blood pressure you must know what blood pressure means. Your heart works everyday to pump blood throughout your body. Your blood travels out from your heart through your arteries and returns to your heart through your veins.

But sometimes, our hearts must work harder to complete this vital process. When this happens, our blood pressure goes up. When blood pressure is higher than normal, it’s also called hypertension.

Essential or primary hypertension is when there are many factors contributing to your high blood pressure and is not because of a specific medical condition. It is reversible with changes in your lifestyle, medication, or both.

Secondary hypertension occurs because of a medical condition. Conditions that affect your kidneys, endocrine system, arteries, or heart can cause secondary hypertension. Pregnancy can also cause it.

Although primary and secondary hypertension can coexist in the same person, we’ll be focusing on primary hypertension in this blog.

What Causes Blood Pressure to Be So High?

While researchers aren’t entirely sure what causes high blood pressure, there are some things experts believe play a role. Some of the things that can affect your blood pressure include:
● Smoking
● Drinking alcohol
● Age
● Stress
● A poor diet
● Excess weight
● A family history of high blood pressure
● Not enough exercise

Your blood pressure is dangerously high when it reaches 180/120. The top number is your systolic number and describes how hard your heart works to push blood out of your heart and into your arteries. The bottom number, also known as your diastolic, measures how much force there is on those same arteries when your heart rests.

What Hypertension Can Feel Like

When people have high blood pressure, they often feel poorly. High blood pressure can cause you to have terrible headaches and nosebleeds. Some even have shortness of breath or anxiety. High blood pressure can feel very uncomfortable and impact your quality of life.

And if your blood pressure remains high or spikes to dangerous heights, you could suffer more severe consequences. Some of the more serious complications of high blood pressure are:

● Chest pains (also known as Angina)
● Memory loss
● Fainting or dizzy spells
● Permanent damage to your kidneys, lungs, and eyes
● A potentially catastrophic heart attack
● Stroke
● Fluid buildup in your lungs also called pulmonary edema

Normal blood pressure is 120/80 or lower.

If your doctor tells you that your blood pressure is 150/90, do you know what that means? It doesn’t seem very different from that normal number, but it actually indicates that you are in Stage 3 of Hypertension.

Here’s an in-depth article from Medical News Today that talks about what to know about high blood pressure.

What Are the 4 Stages of Hypertension?

There are four levels or stages of hypertension, ranging from normal to severe. However, how experts divide the four stages can be confusing to patients. Let’s take a look at the four stages here.

Stage One: Normal

In stage one, your doctor considers your blood pressure to be within the normal range. Your top number may be between 120 and 140. Your bottom number is 80 or lower. Your doctor may monitor you a little more frequently but will probably not prescribe specific treatment.

Stage Two: Prehypertension

It can seem like a fine line between the normal range and prehypertension. In Stage Two, your systolic is between 130 and 139, but your diastolic is between 80 and 89. Your diastolic has begun to rise, but there is still time for you to avoid developing high blood pressure.

Stage Three: Also Known as Stage 1!

This is where it gets confusing! In this stage of hypertension, your top number is between 140 and 159, and your bottom number is between 90 and 99. Many doctors would prescribe medication at this point to reduce your risk for stroke or heart attack and encourage people to try natural ways to lower blood pressure.

Stage Four: Also Known as Stage 2

If your top number is over 160 and your bottom number is over 100, doctors consider your high blood pressure to be severe. They’ll prescribe multiple medications to try to lower your blood pressure. Your doctor will also check your blood pressure regularly and strongly advise you to go on a strict regimen.

Check out the American Heart Association to learn more about the signs of a high blood pressure crisis.

But doesn’t your blood pressure change as you age?

Yes! As you age, your doctors expect your blood pressure to change. Often, doctors see the top number increase while the bottom number decreases slightly with age. This can happen to people who are already diagnosed with high blood pressure and people with no history of high blood pressure.

But even as you age, the best answer for good, long-term health is the same. Maintain your health with healthy eating and regular, active movement.

So How Can I Lower My Blood Pressure?

Many factors contribute to overall health and directly affect your blood pressure. Five key aspects of your life can positively or negatively impact your blood pressure, including:

1. Eating and Hydrating: Put nourishing, whole foods into your body, so it can work optimally. Eating more whole foods and less red meat, salt, and alcohol is critical. Drinking plenty of water each day can also positively affect your blood pressure.

Learn more about how to eat heart healthy from my blog, “Top 10 Foods That Lower Blood Pressure“.

2. Movement and Fitness: Staying active keeps your blood vessels flexible, and blood flows more freely through them.

3. Sleep and Relaxation: Many studies have shown that poor quality sleep can lead to elevated blood pressure levels.

Read what the American Sleep Association has to say about the link between your sleep quality and high blood pressure.

4. Joy and Purpose: Studies show that joy in daily life and a sense of purpose can help prevent high blood pressure and reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke if you already have high blood pressure. Living with joy and purpose reduces the negative effects of stress.

5. Stress Management: Many things can cause stress, so managing it is crucial. Chronic stress causes damage and contributes to high blood pressure. And learning effective stress management is key to handling particularly challenging moments without experiencing a spike in blood pressure.

Here’s a link from Harvard Health Publishing with more details about how a positive mindset can help your heart.

Can I Lower My Blood Pressure Quickly?

You may have wondered how to lower blood pressure quickly or if there are natural ways to lower blood pressure. Fortunately, there are simple techniques you can try to lower spiking blood pressure and keep it more evenly regulated, including:
● Acupuncture
● Drinking hibiscus tea
● A short walk in the sunshine
● Relaxing deep breathing exercises
● Drinking beetroot and apple juice

Does Anxiety Cause High Blood Pressure?

The close cousin of stress is anxiety, which can also create problems with blood pressure. While anxiety doesn’t cause long-term high blood pressure, it can cause it to spike. And when it spikes, you may find yourself growing more anxious.

It becomes a vicious cycle that then causes you stress.

In conclusion, caring for your high blood pressure takes a whole-body approach. Only taking a pill or only changing your diet might not be enough because so many factors can help or harm your high blood pressure.

But when you’re ready, some tools can help you take control and properly support your journey to better health.