Blood Pressure

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39.     The causes of hypertension are largely unknown to medical science, although there are certain risk factors that aggravate an individual’s chances of developing hypertension. The following are some of the risk factors (not in any order of importance) that individually or collectively are responsible for causing hypertension. 

Wrong Diet

40.     In most cases of hypertension, diet remains the single most important risk factor in the causation of high BP. Diet of fried eggs, white buttered toasts, salt-laden bacon and sausages , fried potatoes and fat-rich pranthas for breakfast; heavily salted and fat-rich refined and processed foods and meat for lunch and dinner; not to mention excess dairy products (saturated fats again), cold drinks, coffee, tea, ice cream, sugar, tobacco and alcohol, is a deadly prescription for high blood pressure and other related diseases. There is no one aspect of the diet that causes high BP, but rather the multitude of improper foods and eating habits.

Smoking

41.     Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for hypertension. The chemicals in tobacco damage the lining of artery walls, causing arteries to accumulate fatty deposits that contain cholesterol, thus narrowing the arteries. Tobacco also releases another hormone that causes your body to retain fluid. Narrowed arteries and increased fluid lead to high BP. Besides damaging your lungs, smoking also elevates BP by increasing the heart rate and constricting blood vessels.

42.     Nicotine in tobacco is absorbed by the tiny blood vessels in your lungs and distributed in your blood stream. It takes only 10 seconds for the nicotine to reach the brain. Brain reacts by releasing powerful hormone (adrenalin), which narrows the blood vessels, forcing your heart to pump harder under higher pressure. Nicotine also acts as a stimulant on the central nervous system, changes muscle tension, affects certain brain chemicals and hormones and raises BP. A person who has high BP and smokes is 3-5 times more likely to die from heart disease than non-smoker with high BP.