What are the complications of hypertension?
When the blood flows with high pressure across the blood arteries, it tends to pose some serious complications in various parts of the body. Since hypertension is the ‘silent killer’, it does not show any complication at an early stage. A person suffering from hypertension may not know his medical condition until it’s too late. Thus, it is always recommended to have regular medical checkups.
High blood pressure causes stress on several organs such as kidneys, heart, eyes, etc and deteriorate their functions over a period of time. Major complications due to hypertension are:
Heart complications
Our heart is one of the most sensitive organs of the body. It is also the most severely affected organ due to hypertension. There are many heart complications that can occur due to high blood pressure. Some of them are listed below:
Coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease, also known as atherosclerosis, is a severe heart disease in which the arteries become narrow due to the deposition of waxy substances called plaques.
These plaques are usually cholesterol molecules that attach to the interior of the artery walls thus making them stiffer and less flexible.
When blood flows across these arteries at very high pressure, these plaques may rupture and in turn damage the arteries. This can lead to heart strokes, and several other heart diseases. High blood pressure can severely complicate atherosclerosis.
Heart Failure
In hypertension, the workload on heart increases tremendously, forcing it to pump the blood more quickly and forcefully. As the time passes, heart walls become thick and it is unable to perform its function effectively. This results in a complication called heart failure in which the heart is unable to supply enough oxygenated blood to the organ. This may result in death of a person also.
Cardiac Arrhythmias
Cardiac arrhythmias is a condition in which heart beats are highly irregular, either too fast or too slow. High blood pressure often worsens the condition.
Angina
High blood pressure can cause a common heart problem called angina. Angina is a condition in which a person experiences extreme chest pain and discomfort.
Heart attack
We often hear about people experiencing a heart attack and in extreme cases they may even die. Heart attack is a severe condition in which a section of heart muscle stops receiving oxygenated blood and becomes blocked.
High blood pressure is considered one of the main causes of heart attack.
Stroke
Stroke is a condition in which any part of the body stops receiving oxygenated blood due to blockage in arteries. This condition results in many other complications such as extreme pain, weakness, paralysis, etc.
High blood pressure increases the chances of stroke. A hypertensive person tends to suffer from strokes more often than a normal person.
Diabetes
There are high chances that a diabetic patient will also suffer from high blood pressure. There is a constant confusion that whether high blood pressure is the cause or result of diabetes. The medicines used to treat diabetes alter the blood pressure in the patient. Diabetic patients are therefore, advised to control their blood pressure.
Kidney disease
Your kidneys help in filtering the blood and removing all the waste from the body. In case of hypertension, the high blood pressure tends to damage the arteries near your kidneys thereby adversely affecting the filtration process.
Eye disorder
There is a huge misconception that high blood pressure and eye disorders are not interconnected. Blockage or poor blood flow in the arteries of eyes can result in eye complications such as blur vision, blindness, etc.
Sexual Dysfunction
Normally, both men and women suffer from sexual dysfunction. But in case of people suffering from high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction is more commonly found in men rather than women.
There are several other complications that may occur due to high blood pressure. These complications are hard to detect in early phases as no proper symptoms are generally observed for them. If not treated in time, it can become a life threatening problem. Therefore, it is always advisable to consult a doctor on time so that the best possible treatment can be made available.
There is no cure for hypertension but there are a number of treatment options available that can help in managing the condition. Read about various treatment options for hypertension.
