High blood pressure is a silent killer. It can have detrimental effects on your body for months, even years, before any symptoms develop.
High blood pressure can damage your arteries, your heart, your brain, your kidneys and your eyes. It can also lead to sexual dysfunction, osteoperosis and sleep troubles.
Arteries in optimum health are flexible, strong and elastic. Arteries are the passageway for blood to get to the vital organs and tissues and deliver them with nutrients and oxygens. High blood pressure increases the pressure of blood flowing through your arteries and can lead to a variety of conditions, including aneurysm. This is when the high pressure of blood flowing through a weakened artery causes a bulge in the wall known as an aneurysm. An aneurysm can rupture at any point and lead to life threatening internal bleeding. High blood pressure can also lead to arteriosclerosis which is when artery walls become stiff and thick. Fats pass through the hardened arteries and accumulate to begin the process of atherosclerosis. This blocks blood from reaching the heart, kidneys and brain and can cause angina, heart attack and heart and kidney failure.
The brain is also at risk from high blood pressure. High blood pressure weakens the blood vessels leading to the brain. This results in leakage, narrowing or rupturing of the vessels. This can lead to stroke. High blood pressure has also been linked to dementia, which is a brain disease resulting in impaired thinking, speaking, memory, vision and movement.
Kidneys are required for filtering and excreting waste from your blood and is highly dependant on efficient blood vessels. High blood pressure can damage the blood vessels and reduce the efficiency of waste disposal in the kidneys. This can lead to kidney failure, kidney scarring and a kidney artery aneurysm.
As well as the above life threatening conditions, high blood pressure can cause erectile dysfunction, osteoperosis and sleep apnea.
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