Causes and Cure of Blood Pressure

By Dr. Satish Goel

Blood pressure and the heart related ailments, have been significantly on the rise chiefly due to the complexities of the mordern life. Now the tendency, in general, is to squeeze a lot of activities within a short span of time and all expect favourable results, forgetting totally that man is not God and he has only control over his action and not on the results achieved. This condition exposes them to those situations for which their body-organs, particularly the heart is not designed. Hence they suffer all kinds of ailments related to blood circulation and heart. It is to guard the people against these rampant situations that this book has been written. Our attempt has been not only guiding the people against indulging in such conditions but also telling, in detail, the consequences of their not heeding to our advice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Oct 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9789385975462

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Terms

Introduction

Blood pressure and the heart related ailments, have been significantly on the rise chiefly due to the complexities of the modern life. Now the tendency, in general, is to squeeze a lot of activities within a short span of time and all expect favourable results, forgetting totally that man is not God and he has only control over his action and not on the results achieved. This condition exposes them to those situations for which their body-organs, particularly the heart is not designed. Hence they suffer all kinds of ailments related to blood circulation and heart. It is to guard the people against these rampant situations that this book has been written. Our attempt has been not only guiding the people against indulging in such conditions but also telling, in detail, the consequences of their not heeding to our advice.

For convenience sake, this volume has been divided in two distinct parts. Since blood pressure irregularities are generally held to be the stepping-stone to reach the heart condition, the book has been divided in two broad steps. We have tried to make this book as much comprehensive as possible by leaving no methods or therapies untouched which were found to be effective to cure or contain these two ailments. All relevant charts and diagrams have also been added to make the book more useful even to our lay-readers. Lastly, the author wishes to record his gratefulness to Narenderji of Diamond Pocket Books who provided all help to him

— Dr. Satish Goel

BOOK ONE

Blood Pressure

Chapter 1

I. What Is Hypertension?

Hypertension is the medical term for the problem when the blood pressure remains perpetually high. This leads to another question as to what blood pressure is. Before knowing about blood pressure it is better we know what is blood? Blood is that vital liquid that circulates in the arteries and veins of human beings and higher animals. It supplies food and oxygen to the millions of living cells in the human body and its continuous flow around the body is powered by the heart which is the most amazing pumping machine ever known to man. The heart pumps blood through a network of arteries and veins which cover about 96000 kms. It is estimated that in a life time of 70 years the heart must beat at least 250 crore times. And in each of thrust the cycle must be completed or else the whole system collapses. The medical researches have proved that this machine, the human heart is capable of withstanding the pressure 300 times more than it is designed for and yet people have heart failures!

This amazing fluid-human blood is basically made of three parts; plasma, blood cells and other chemical materials. The blood cells are of two types: Red Blood Corpuscles (RBC) and White Blood Corpuscles (WBC). The RBC are the carrier of vitality in the body which the WBC of the waste. The RBC carry oxygen from the lungs to rest of the cells of the body and take back their waste, carbon dioxide, to the lungs where it is thrown out of the body through exhalations. These blood cells are carried in the plasma which is 90% water. The plasma takes dissolved food to the cells and carries waste products to the kidneys so that it would be discarded out of body.

Despite apparently the constitution of blood being similar it is the different quality of this combination that is distinguishing quality of blood known as the blood group. These blood groups are distinguished owing to the different proportions of chemicals in their cells and plasma which identify the blood groups. Generally, all kinds of human blood can be divided into four distinct groups in accordance to their reaction to the red blood cells when mixed with the plasma serum of another persons. These four varieties of blood groups are: Group A, Group B, Group AB and Group O. Since Group A contains A-protein it is called so. Similarly, Group B contains B-protein. Group AB contains both types of proteins i.e. A and B. These groups are important and each person should know about his blood group. It is necessary in order to avoid incompatibilities and serious reactions While group O is considered as the universal donor (that is, it can be given to any group), the AB group is the universal recipient.

In the fourth decade, another important discovery was made about blood. It was found that there is yet another factor which separates human blood into two different groups- the Rh factor. It is of two types : Rh positive and Rh negative. The determination of Rh factor especially Rh negative is most vital in pregnancy in order to avoid complications during delivery for the baby and the mother.

Having known about the basics of the blood constitution, let us now discuss as to what blood pressure means. It is the force of the blood against the walls of the blood vessels — the arteries and veins in our body. Without this pressure the blood would not be able to circulate in the body. Hence blood pressure can be defined as the pressure which the blood exerts against the wall of the arteries through which it flows. The pumping from the heart maintains the continuous output of blood and this pressure is the resistance created by the small narrow arteries in the tissue.

This pressure is classified in two categories: high blood pressure and low blood pressure. In all human beings, the blood pressure varies from moment to moment. It rises when we are excited or tense and drops when we are relaxed or asleep. These are normal changes in the blood pressure and occurs in everyone of us. However, in persons suffering from high blood pressure, the pressure exerted by the arteries goes up and remains consistently and persistently up. In fact this is the chronic condition called ‘High Blood Pressure’ or hypertension. Left untreated this condition might lead to such serious consequences as stroke, heart or kidney failure or paralysis.

However, there are some individuals in whom the blood pressure remains consistently below normal. Such people are called ‘Hypotensive’. The most common cause of low blood pressure is either the family trait or the characteristic of the individual. In case their blood pressure remains perpetually low, it is not a disease for this could be taken as their normal blood pressure. The range of the normal blood pressure is shown below.

The Range of the Blood Pressure

What is Normal Blood Pressure?

It can be defined as the pressure exerted by arteries on the movement of blood under normal conditions. It varies in an individual depending upon the phase of activity of the heart. For the sake of convenience the doctors normally measures the blood pressure in of the large artries of an arm. Two types of blood pressure: systolic and diastolic are measured. Systolic pressure is the pressure at a moment when the heart contracts in the process of pumping out blood and represents the greatest pressure. Diastolic pressure is the pressure of a moment when the heart relaxes to permit the inflow of blood. Thus systolic pressure is always higher than the diastolic pressure. Normal blood pressure in adults is generally around 120 milimeters of mercury or mm Hg systolic and 80 milimeteres of mercury or mm Hg diastolic and is usually written at 120/80 mm Hg. However, the systolic pressure could vary in individuals from 100 mm Hg to 140 mm Hg and still be considered normal, just as the diastolic could vary from 60 to 90 mm Hg. In deciding a person’s blood pressure, various factors have to be taken into account. For instance, a blood pressure of 140 or 150/90 mm Hg would be less significant in 60 year old compared to a 20year old person.

It must be remembered that higher diastolic pressure is much more significant than a systolic pressure because in the diastolic stage the heart gets relief. If this pressure is higher it means the heart is not getting any relief which is definitely a danger signal.

Hypertension And Its Types :

As discussed hypertension is a state of sustained systolic pressure in the range of 140-150 mm systolic and 90-95 mm Hg. Remember that rise in blood pressure above normal level is important only when the rise in pressure is sustained over a period of time. However, sustained BP increase can be detected only after repeated measurements. A one time reading should not form the conclusion for the doctor since they diagnose the malady after repeatedly measuring the BP over a period of time. Occasional, temporary or isolated rise in blood pressure above the normal limits are often of no consequence because it may result with normal exercise like jogging, cycling or due to some shocking event.

Normally in the case of hypertension, the systolic and diastolic pressure tend to rise together but this is not always the case. Some people, particularly the elderly, have a much greater increase in the systolic than the diastolic pressure. Often times, in such cases, the diastolic pressure may remain normal or near normal.

In medical practice the severity of high blood pressure is usually graded according to the diastolic value, though the systolic pressure is invariably taken into account.

Hypertension is generally classified in two different types. One types is called ‘Primary’ or ‘Essential’ or ‘Benign’ which in medical parlance is called Hypertension Vascular condition. the other types is known as ‘Secondary’ or in medical parlance ‘Hypertensive Cardiovascular condition.’

In fact any person with essential hypertension has high BP for the obvious reason. Essential hypertensive people generally abound the world than those afflicted with the secondary type hypertension. Although it is still a topic for reseasch as to why the essential kind develops yet the factors like heredity, life style, overweight, high salt intake make significant contribution to this condition. The other type, essential or primary hypertension usually occurs in the middle age and can be reasonably controlled with the help of drugs dietary regimen.

As the name suggests secondary type may develop as a consequence to some other malady. Hence the term ‘secondary’, it could be due to kidney disease, hormonal disorders, changes in the body produced by taking oral contraceptives and becoming pregnant etc. In the cases when secondary hypertension is due to kidney diseases, the blood supply to the kidney is diminished because of the malady which in turn, makes the kidney secrete