High Blood Pressure Causes - The 4 Main Causes of Hypertension

High Blood Pressure Causes - The 4 Main Causes of Hypertension

High blood pressure causes, when examined, basically come down to four factors. Though you could probably get tens of different variables out of these four things, these are basically the things behind what may be driving hypertension in your life. In a nutshell, these four causes are diet, lifestyle, genetic factors and stress.

Overweight and/or Bad Diet

Being overweight can certainly drive one to hypertension. Moreover, being overweight and eating poor diet will enhance the chance of developing hypertension even more. Diet alone is a factor in both controlling blood pressure or losing control of it.

Bad dieting is basically a lifestyle. Without getting into too much detail, a bad diet would be the opposite of a healthy diet. You can always tell a person who is not adhering to a healthy diet. He is the guy who was always eating out. The good dieter is the person who always seems to be in the produce section of the supermarket looking over the fruits and vegetables.

Diets that are full of fruits and vegetables are naturally lower sodium diets. On the other hand, a diet that consists mainly of fast foods is one that is high in sodium. It has long been known sodium is an enemy of healthy blood pressure.

Part of healthy living is exercising. These two things seem to go hand-in-hand. One who is prone to eating poorly is usually prone to a sedentary lifestyle. The opposite is true. The person who is eating properly is one who usually gets a lot of fresh air and exercise. Of course, it is the one who is getting the exercise who is much less liable to develop hypertension.

Smoking and Drinking

Alcohol use tends to raise blood pressure in most people. There are exceptions, but usually one who uses alcohol has higher blood pressure readings than one who does not. So, if hypertension is an issue in your life and heavy drinking is also an issue, you can see where one healthy change in your lifestyle can be made immediately.

Another vice that is detrimental to a person's health in many ways is smoking. Smoking tends to close up the arteries. Grammar school physics teaches us that the less space a fluid flows through the higher the pressure is. For instance if a given amount of force is put behind the water flowing through a garden hose, attaching the end of that garden hose to one with a smaller diameter will increase the pressure of the water that is flowing through that hose.

The Family Tree

Sometimes there is little we can do about our blood pressure. This is because there are times hypertension is simply inherited. Of course, we can do things that will exacerbate our problem or, we can choose to live in a way that will lessen the chance we will compound our problem. So, to a certain degree the choice is ours. In any event we can live in such a way that we will not be causing our blood pressure to rise, or we can do just the opposite.

Stress

Finally, if stress is a problem in our life, it could manifest itself in the way of high blood pressure. We must remember that high tension equals hypertension. Though we all have stress in our lives, we have to remember to counteract it with times we set aside for ourselves to be without stress. Try to develop hobbies that are truly relaxing to you if stress is an issue in your life. By the same token try to avoid hobbies that are highly competitive and tend to saddle you with more stress than you already have.

In conclusion, we do have a certain control over our blood pressure readings. Still, hypertension is a long-term proposition. Rome wasn't built in a day. So, returning to top health will obviously take time. Most importantly, make sure your doctor is involved in deciding whether or not you have high blood pressure and how you should go about overcoming it.