Blood Pressure

 Print This Post

Need for Blood Pressure

9.       In good health, BP is regulated by a wondrously intricate series of control mechanisms that involve the brain and the nervous system, the adrenals and other endocrine glands, the kidneys and the heart and the blood vessels themselves.

10.     A certain level of pressure within the arteries is essential for our existence and continued living. Pressure is what propels blood through our body’s blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries). Without pressure, blood could not overcome gravity to reach the brain. The brain, to function properly, needs to receive a constant supply of one litre of oxygenated blood every minute.

11.     To generate BP, the human body relies on the heart as well as muscle fibre lining the arteries. When necessary, the brain increases BP either by signaling the heart to speed up or pump harder or by directing the arteries to contract or some combination of the three. This is exactly what happens in the morning as you pop out of bed. When you stand after being horizontal for so many hours, blood pressure in your head plummets while pressure in your legs shoots up. Without an immediate correction in this imbalance, you would crumple to the floor mid-yawn. On cue from the brain, the arteries in the lower body constrict while the heart dramatically increases output. The instant result: BP rises and blood flows in the brain. Now you can have your warm water with a squeeze of fresh lemon and some honey!

Vulnerability of High Blood Pressure

12.     Lifestyle Factors – People, who are obese, smoke, take excess alcohol, are diabetic, have a family history of hypertension, lead a sedentary stressful life, eat diet rich in fat and salt and are physically inactive, are most vulnerable to high BP.

13.     Age – High BP develops mostly between the ages of 30 and 60, but it has no boundaries. Doctors have observed in some cases, the beginning of hardening of arteries at the early age of 21. Surprisingly, a large number of teenagers, some as young as 15, have been found to be hypertensive.

14.     Ethnic Origin – People of South Asian (including Indian) origin who live in the UK are more prone to develop hypertension than their white neighbours. This is thought to be probably related to their greater tendency to be overweight by consuming fatty foods and to a higher frequency of developing diabetes. Similarly hypertension is also very common among people of Afro-Caribbean origin – in the USA, it is twice as common as in the white and Hispanic populations.